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Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)

Author of Mrs. Dalloway

565+ Works 100,379 Members 1,435 Reviews 640 Favorited
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About the Author

Virginia Woolf was born in London, England on January 25, 1882. She was the daughter of the prominent literary critic Leslie Stephen. Her early education was obtained at home through her parents and governesses. After death of her father in 1904, her family moved to Bloomsbury, where they formed show more the nucleus of the Bloomsbury Group, a circle of philosophers, writers, and artists. During her lifetime, she wrote both fiction and non-fiction works. Her novels included Jacob's Room, Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, Orlando, and Between the Acts. Her non-fiction books included The Common Reader, A Room of One's Own, Three Guineas, The Captain's Death Bed and Other Essays, and The Death of the Moth and Other Essays. Having had periods of depression throughout her life and fearing a final mental breakdown from which she might not recover, Woolf drowned herself on March 28, 1941 at the age of 59. Her husband published part of her farewell letter to deny that she had taken her life because she could not face the terrible times of war. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Series

Works by Virginia Woolf

Mrs. Dalloway (1925) 20,067 copies
To the Lighthouse (1927) 17,159 copies
A Room of One's Own (1929) 12,050 copies
Orlando: A Biography (1928) 10,331 copies
The Waves (1931) 5,213 copies
The Voyage Out (1915) 2,651 copies
Jacob's Room (1922) 2,308 copies
Between the Acts (1941) 1,965 copies
Night and Day (1919) 1,899 copies
The Years (1937) 1,552 copies
Three Guineas (1938) 1,435 copies
Flush: A Biography (1933) 1,360 copies
A Writer's Diary (1953) 1,238 copies
Moments of Being (1976) 1,101 copies
The Common Reader: First Series (1925) 1,061 copies
Mrs. Dalloway (Annotated) (1993) 950 copies
To the Lighthouse (2005) 687 copies
A Haunted House and Other Short Stories (1944) — Author — 639 copies
The Mrs Dalloway Reader (2003) 423 copies
Women and Writing (1979) 361 copies
Mrs. Dalloway's Party: A Short-Story Sequence (1973) — Author — 264 copies
On Being Ill (1926) 236 copies
Freshwater: A Comedy (1976) 193 copies
The Virginia Woolf Reader (1984) 183 copies
Roger Fry: A Biography (1940) 172 copies
The Years (2008) 158 copies
Street Haunting (2005) 155 copies
Melymbrosia: A Novel (1982) 153 copies
The Moment and Other Essays (1947) 146 copies
The Essays of Virginia Woolf : Volume 1, 1904-1912 (1986) — Author — 145 copies
Granite and Rainbow : Essays (1958) 131 copies
Nurse Lugton's Curtain (1991) 116 copies
Selected Essays (2008) 111 copies
Selected Short Stories (1993) 108 copies
Kew Gardens [short story] (1919) 99 copies
Travels with Virginia Woolf (1905) 86 copies
The Widow and the Parrot (1988) 74 copies
A Room of One's Own / The Voyage Out (1848) — Author — 71 copies
How Should One Read a Book? (1922) 64 copies
Liberty: Vintage Minis (2017) 56 copies
Selected Diaries (2008) 53 copies
Complete Diary : 1915-1941 (1977) 40 copies
The Collected Essays (1967) 39 copies
Essays on the Self (2017) 39 copies
A Woman's Essays (1992) 35 copies
Collected Essays, Volume 1 (1966) 30 copies
Memoirs of a Novelist (2006) 30 copies
Collected Essays, Volume 4 (1967) 27 copies
Collected Essays, Volume 2 (1966) 25 copies
Collected Essays, Volume 3 (1967) 24 copies
Two Stories (2017) 22 copies
Novels and Short Stories (1993) 21 copies
I capolavori (1994) 19 copies
Reviewing (1939) 17 copies
The False Novel (2000) 15 copies
Oh, to Be a Painter! (2021) 15 copies
Cuentos completos (1900) 13 copies
The Art of the Novel (1963) 12 copies
Women (2011) 11 copies
The New Dress [short story] (1996) 10 copies
The Death of the Moth (1942) 9 copies
Virginia Woolf by Herself (2004) 9 copies
On Fiction (2011) 9 copies
Beau Brummell (1977) 8 copies
The Legacy [short story] (2017) 8 copies
The Narrow Bridge of Art (1986) 7 copies
Romans, essais (2014) 6 copies
Lectures intimes (2013) 6 copies
Virginia Woolf (2017) 5 copies
Essais choisis (2015) 5 copies
Time Passes (2010) 5 copies
Sobre la escritura (2015) 4 copies
Journal (1982) 4 copies
Eseje wybrane (2015) 4 copies
MATAR AL ANGEL DEL HOGAR (1929) 4 copies
Byrackan (2019) 4 copies
Four Hidden Letters (2007) 4 copies
Tutti i racconti (1993) 4 copies
Essays (1997) 4 copies
The Joke of the Battleship, The Society (1999) — Author — 3 copies
Personligt (2016) 3 copies
Three Guineas (Annotated) (1689) 3 copies
The Novels, Volume 1 (2012) 3 copies
Fire britiske klassikere (2018) 3 copies
22 Hyde Park Gate [essay] (2015) 3 copies
Viagens (2018) 3 copies
A Society [short story] (1921) 3 copies
48 Ensaios 3 copies
Böcker (2014) 3 copies
Oeuvre romanesque. Tome 2 (1974) 3 copies
Cartas de Amor 2 copies
Zum Leuchtturm (2016) 2 copies
ESCRITORAS (EL BARQUERO) (2017) 2 copies
Montaigne, Âme Libre (2019) 2 copies
Sul cinema (2012) 2 copies
Cartas de amor (2022) 2 copies
Diaris (Catalan Edition) (2022) 2 copies
Flush (1985) 2 copies
Noite e dia 2 copies
Diário 2 copies
Mr Bennett and Mrs. Brown (2020) 2 copies
Jacob's Room Annotated (2021) 2 copies
Leggere a caso (2016) 2 copies
Journal. Tome 1 (1981) 2 copies
Una societat (2023) 1 copy
Dos relats: 1 (Menuts) (2021) 1 copy
Scritti sull'arte (2023) 1 copy
Sit eget værelse (2013) 1 copy
Orlango 1 copy
Essais 1 copy
Opere (1998) 1 copy
On the Mediterranean (1995) 1 copy
Författarlivet (2018) 1 copy
Virginia Woolf - Caixa (2018) 1 copy
El foco (2014) 1 copy
I racconti 1 copy
Δοκίμια (1999) 1 copy
Bir Yazarin Günlügü (2013) 1 copy
Mrs. Dalloway - Manuscrito — Author — 1 copy
Ricordi (1996) 1 copy
Lettres (1993) 1 copy
Pisma Viti (2008) 1 copy
Essays (1986) 1 copy
Two Stories 1 copy
Wlasny pokój (2019) 1 copy

Associated Works

Pride and Prejudice (1813) — some editions — 78,348 copies
Wuthering Heights (1847) — Afterword, some editions — 50,338 copies
Sense and Sensibility (1811) — some editions — 37,145 copies
Persuasion (1817) — some editions — 27,902 copies
Robinson Crusoe (1719) — Introduction, some editions — 24,093 copies
Middlemarch (1871) — Préface, some editions — 17,265 copies
Paradise Lost [Norton Critical Edition] (1667) — Contributor, some editions — 2,155 copies
A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy (1768) — Introduction, some editions — 1,703 copies
The Waste Land (Norton Critical Editions) (2000) — Contributor — 1,496 copies
The Garden Party (1922) — Foreword, some editions — 1,445 copies
The Art of the Personal Essay (1994) — Contributor — 1,342 copies
50 Great Short Stories (1952) — Contributor — 1,216 copies
Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama (1995) — Contributor, some editions — 902 copies
The Penguin Book of English Short Stories (1967) — Contributor — 422 copies
The Norton Book of Women's Lives (1993) — Contributor — 405 copies
Women & Fiction: Short Stories By and About Women (1975) — Contributor — 361 copies
Literature: The Human Experience (2006) — Contributor — 335 copies
The Essential Feminist Reader (2007) — Contributor — 308 copies
The Penguin Book of Lesbian Short Stories (1993) — Contributor — 294 copies
The Mammoth Book of Haunted House Stories (2000) — Contributor — 289 copies
A Treasury of Short Stories (1947) — Contributor — 286 copies
The World's Greatest Short Stories (2006) — Contributor — 260 copies
Criticism: Major Statements (1964) — Contributor — 211 copies
The Oxford Book of English Short Stories (1998) — Contributor — 186 copies
Love Letters (1996) — Contributor — 180 copies
Eight Modern Essayists (1980) — some editions — 177 copies
Aurora Leigh [Norton Critical Edition] (1996) — Contributor — 175 copies
Erotica: Women's Writing from Sappho to Margaret Atwood (1990) — Contributor — 168 copies
Murder & Other Acts of Literature (1997) — Contributor — 144 copies
The Norton Book of Personal Essays (1997) — Contributor — 142 copies
Stories of the Supernatural (1891) — Introduction, some editions — 139 copies
Read With Me (1965) — Contributor — 128 copies
The Second Penguin Book of English Short Stories (1972) — Contributor, some editions — 116 copies
The Penguin Book of Women's Humour (1996) — Contributor — 114 copies
Magical Realist Fiction: An Anthology (1984) — Contributor — 110 copies
Orlando [1992 film] (1992) — Original book — 82 copies
The Treasury of English Short Stories (1985) — Contributor — 81 copies
Delphi Complete Works of Charles Dickens (Illustrated) (2011) — Contributor, some editions — 77 copies
Traveller's Library (1933) — Contributor — 67 copies
The Gender of Modernism: A Critical Anthology (1990) — Contributor — 62 copies
Modern English Short Stories: Second Series (1911) — Contributor — 62 copies
Victorian Photographs of Famous Men and Fair Women (1926) — Introduction — 56 copies
The Virago Book of Christmas (2002) — Contributor — 52 copies
Strangeness (1977) — Contributor — 52 copies
Into the London Fog: Eerie Tales from the Weird City (2020) — Contributor — 45 copies
An Omnibus of 20th Century Ghost Stories (1989) — Contributor — 45 copies
Masters of the Modern Short Story (1945) — Contributor — 44 copies
Sophocles: A Collection of Critical Essays (1966) — Contributor — 40 copies
The Oxford Book of English Love Stories (1996) — Contributor — 34 copies
Writing Politics: An Anthology (2020) — Contributor — 33 copies
The Secret Self: A Century of Short Stories by Women (1995) — Contributor — 32 copies
Medusa's Daughters (2020) — Contributor — 32 copies
Stories To Get You Through The Night (2010) — Contributor — 32 copies
Famous and Curious Animal Stories (1982) — Contributor — 29 copies
Mrs. Dalloway [1997 film] (1999) — Original book — 29 copies
A Book of Essays (1963) — Contributor — 26 copies
Sail Away: Stories of Escaping to Sea (2001) — Contributor — 25 copies
Studies in Fiction (1965) — Contributor — 22 copies
Classic Essays in English (1961) — Contributor — 22 copies
One World of Literature (1992) — Contributor — 22 copies
Women on Nature (2021) — Contributor — 20 copies
Journal of a Somerset Rector, 1803-1834 (1971) — Contributor, some editions — 18 copies
Masters of British Literature, Volume B (2007) — Contributor — 16 copies
Great Classic Stories II: Eighteen Unabridged Classics (2010) — Contributor — 13 copies
31 Stories (1960) — Contributor — 12 copies
Witches' Brew: Horror and Supernatural Stories by Women (1984) — Contributor — 10 copies
England forteller : britiske og irske noveller (1970) — Contributor — 9 copies
Best of Women's Short Stories, Volume 2 (2006) — Contributor — 9 copies
The Analog Sea Review: Number Three (2020) — Contributor — 8 copies
British and American Essays, 1905-1956 (1959) — Contributor — 7 copies
Erzähler des S. Fischer Verlages 1886-1978 (2018) — Author — 7 copies
Favourite Sea Stories from Seaside Al (1996) — Contributor — 7 copies
The London Omnibus (1932) — Contributor — 6 copies
The New Windmill Book of Stories from Different Genres (1998) — Contributor — 6 copies
Classic Women's Literature (2001) — Contributor — 5 copies
Three Worlds: Music from Woolf Works (2014) — Narrator — 4 copies
Pages de journal (1929-1932) (1934) — Binder, some editions — 4 copies
Enjoying Stories (1987) — Contributor — 2 copies
London Unplugged (2021) — original short story, segment "Kew Gardens" — 2 copies
Royal Ballet : Woolf Works : 2022/23 [programme] (2023) — Contributor — 1 copy
Virginia's Sisters: An anthology of women's writing (2023) — Contributor — 1 copy
50 seltsame Geschichten — Contributor — 1 copy
The Dial, Vol LXXVII No 6, December 1924 — Contributor, some editions — 1 copy
The London mercury — Contributor — 1 copy
Neue Rundschau 1/80 — Author — 1 copy
Modern Short Stories — Contributor — 1 copy
Life and Letters Volume III No. 16. September 1929 (1928) — Contributor — 1 copy
Country Living Magazine Christmas Stories (1995) — Contributor — 1 copy
早稲田文学増刊 女性号 (2017) — Contributor — 1 copy

Tagged

1001 (873) 1001 books (943) 19th century (3,517) 20th century (1,992) adventure (762) anthology (927) Austen (1,624) Bloomsbury (1,042) British (3,664) British literature (3,808) classic (8,768) classic fiction (767) classic literature (1,172) classics (9,280) ebook (1,153) England (3,315) English (1,769) English literature (3,804) essays (2,253) feminism (1,604) fiction (26,461) historical fiction (984) Jane Austen (2,195) Kindle (993) literature (6,770) love (877) modernism (1,470) non-fiction (2,005) novel (5,110) own (1,319) poetry (786) read (2,841) Regency (1,146) romance (4,614) short stories (1,363) to-read (9,345) unread (1,261) Virginia Woolf (1,852) women (1,405) Woolf (850)

Common Knowledge

Members

Discussions

Folio Archives 350: To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf 1988 in Folio Society Devotees (November 24)
Group Read - A Room of One's Own in Club Read 2023 (May 2)
A Room of One's Own (2017) in Folio Society Devotees (September 2021)
Virginia Woolf/Mrs. Dalloway in Someone explain it to me... (September 2021)
Virginia Woolf: Jacob's Room in Author Theme Reads (June 2019)
Group Read, February 2016: The Voyage Out in 1001 Books to read before you die (February 2016)
***April Group Read: Orlando by Virginia Woolf in 2015 Category Challenge (April 2015)
February 2015: Virginia Woolf in Monthly Author Reads (March 2015)
Group Read, December 2014: Orlando in 1001 Books to read before you die (December 2014)
I've never read *******; where should I start? in Virago Modern Classics (January 2014)
May 2012: Virginia Woolf in Monthly Author Reads (August 2012)
Woolf: The Voyage Out in Author Theme Reads (February 2009)
Virginia Woolf: Mrs. Dalloway in Author Theme Reads (February 2009)

Reviews

I've never read anything like this but it was so impressive. It was also challenging, frustrating, and required great attention. But the pay off was so worth it. It took me years to really understand how to read Virginia Woolf but I am in awe of her now. She had a brilliant mind and a great talent. She just requires your full attention to every sentence and that was a skill that took time for me to develop, but she has fully won me over with this book.
½
 
Flagged
Iudita | 70 other reviews | Nov 21, 2023 |
A hard book to review. Woolf is obviously an amazing writer in language terms and that's what kept me going through the book. I'm not much for descriptions but she constantly manages to put a long set of things together in a way that summons the place in a nostalgic, dream like and beautiful way.

But... God her vision is so stupefyingly and tediously parochial. The most obvious "bad" thing is she uses the n word twice in a purely descriptive way for no reason. Bad. But there's also a chapter where she places Orlando in Istanbul during the height of the ottoman empire and she's unable to describe it as anything other than "barbarian", where they're presented as fools expecting Orlando to perform a public miracle for some reason. Then the chapter moves to her being in a Romany group and that is also racist and gross.

Even past the racism, Woolf never seems interested in depicting anything past her upper middle class horizons while being obsequious over Orlando being an aristocrat. It seems like hard work to make a 400 year romp through history seem so dull. The most common theme is about writing as writing and it's excruciatingly dull. The literary scene is hard to make interesting and Woolf doesn't even try.

Obviously the book is also a kind of love letter. The annotations are full of "oh this is a reference to X". It's pretty obvious even without context that a lot of stuff is about a specific person. I was actually drawn to reading it partly because of that but the overall effect is... Weird. It comes across as all an inside joke. And somehow not very... Loving, for a love letter. Heroising instead, I guess.

I just feel difficult about it. Maybe partly it's just that I can't read a book about an aristocrat without being repulsed. But by the end I just felt like I'd been pulled along on a journey with a travel partner who'd rather have just stayed at home in the first place.
… (more)
 
Flagged
tombomp | 166 other reviews | Oct 31, 2023 |
A truly beautiful novel. Virginia Woolf's first, this clearly shows her influences in a range of ways, and perhaps it meanders a little too much between Helen and Rachel, and its climax feels like an idea of how a novel should end rather than a thematic conclusion. Yet these are minor quibbles. The dialogue, the themes, the range of intimate moments... this is the formation of genius.
 
Flagged
therebelprince | 39 other reviews | Oct 24, 2023 |
More of an amuse-bouche than a novel, Flush is an unsurprisingly delightful read.
 
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therebelprince | 33 other reviews | Oct 24, 2023 |

Lists

100 (1)
1940s (1)
Read (1)
1950s (1)
1910s (1)
AP Lit (3)
Romans (3)
1930s (4)
1920s (6)
(1)

Awards

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Associated Authors

Vanessa Bell Cover artist, Illustrator
Quentin Bell Contributor, Foreword, Introduction
Leonard Woolf Editor, Foreword
Francine Prose Editor, Introduction
Eleanor McNees Annotation and Introduction
Jan Morris Editor
Kate Mosse Foreword
Andrew McNeillie Editor, Assistant
Hermione Lee Introduction, Foreword
Elaine Showalter Contributor, Introduction
Mary Gordon Contributor, Foreword
Angelica Garnett Introduction, Contributor
Michael Cunningham Contributor, Introduction
Maria Bosse-Sporleder Translator, Übersetzer
Susan Dick Editor
Deborah Eisenberg Contributor
E.M. Forster Contributor
Elissa Schappell Contributor
Margo Jefferson Contributor
Sigrid Nunez Contributor
James Wood Contributor
Daniel Mendelsohn Contributor
Frances Spalding Composer, Editor
Julie Vivas Illustrator
Ali Smith Foreword
Dora Carrington Illustrator
Claudia Wenner Translator
Susanna Rustin Speech editor
Kate Abbott Research
Louis Kronenberger Contributor
Jordi Ainaud Translator
Joanne Murphy Research
Celia Johnson Narrator
Merete Alfsen Translator
Robert Mathias Cover designer
Mark Hussey Editor, Annotation and Introduction
Ingalisa Munck Translator
Nini Brunt Translator
Carol Ann Duffy Introduction
Nathalie Novi Illustrator
Merry M. Pawlowski Introduction
Lizzy Stewart Illustrator
Anne Flosnik Narrator
Kari Risvik Translator
Tomris Uyar Translator
Eudora Welty Introduction
Helena Valentí Translator
D.M. Hoare Introduction
Alice Hoffman Introduction
Terence Holliday Introduction
Kai Kaila Translator
Anika Ryall Foreword
Nicole Kidman Narrator
Maurice Lanoire Translator
Phyllida Law Narrator
Ceri Richards Cover artist
Gilbert Phelps Introduction
Maryclare Foa Illustrator
Anna Luisa Zazo Translator
Paul Fischer Cover artist
Helen Dunmore Introduction
Julia Briggs Introduction
Giulia Celenza Translator
Jo Fiedeldij Dop Translator
Nicola Bradbury Introduction
Jo Fiedeldij Dop Translator
David Pearson Cover artist
Maura Del Serra Translator
Helena Valentí Translator
Becca Stadtlander Illustrator
Natalia Aspesi Introduction
Anthon Beeke Cover designer
Cornelius Nuie Cover artist
Elizabeth Bowen Afterword
Maria DiBattista Introduction
Grazia Livi Introduction
Clare Higgins Narrator
Jeanette Winterson Introduction
Sandra M. Gilbert Introduction
Grazia Scalero Translator
Liz Demeter Cover designer, Designer
Karin Kersten Translator
Klaus Reichert Editor, Afterword
Cécile Wajsbrot Translator
Andrés Bosch Translator
Deborah Parsons Introduction and Notes
Kate Flint Editor
Bascove Cover artist
Adriana Bottini Translator
Kaarina Ripatti Translator
Oriana Previtali Translator
Lorna Sage Editor
Pagan Harleman Introduction
Luisa Muraro Translator
Jennifer Eachus Cover artist
Bonnie Kime Scott Annotation and Introduction
Masolino D'Amico Translator
Janet Halverson Cover designer
Edward Gorey Illustrator
Flora Casas Translator
Gill Lowe Editor
Sue Roe Editor
Jo Fiedeldij Dop Translator
Anna Banti Translator
Sheila Heti Introduction
John Sewell Cover designer
Alison Bechdel Introduction
Liza Ross Narrator
Gavin Brammall Art director
John Spencer Illustrator
Tom Clark Series editor
Darren Gavigan Production

Statistics

Works
565
Also by
112
Members
100,379
Popularity
#90
Rating
4.1
Reviews
1,435
ISBNs
3,498
Languages
37
Favorited
640
About
6
Touchstones
2,892

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