Virginia Woolf

(Paperback)

Available Formats

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

An accessible introduction to a writer whose work is of timeless significance and whose unconventional life is a continuous source of fascination. This gripping account offers an ideal introduction to both the life and work of Virginia Woolf. It considers each of Woolf's novels in context and shows why, seventy years after her death, Virginia Woolf continues to haunt and inspire us. In 1907, when she was twenty-five and not yet a published novelist, Virginia Stephen had everything still to prove. She felt herself to be at a crossroads: 'I shall be miserable, or happy; a wordy sentimental creature, or a writer of such English as shall one day burn the pages.' Today her prose is still blazing; perhaps it burns brighter than ever. For this is the story of how a determined young woman with a notebook became one of the greatest writers of all time. It is a story that sparkles with wit and friendship, language and love, wicked jokes and passionate appreciation of ordinary things. Hers was a life lived with intensity from moment to moment, courageous and defiant of convention, and shaped into the lasting patterns of art.

Reviews

'Harris's [book] is a pencil sketch in clear brisk lines. As an introduction to Woolf, Harris's study will do very well: she writes beautifully, with an eye for lucid detail ' - Sunday Times
'The critical evaluations of Woolf's novels are elegant and searching; the analysis of Orlando is especially acute ... an ideal introduction ' - Financial Times
'Harris tells the story crisply and with personality' - Guardian
'Harris presents a Woolf for the early 21st century' - The Spectator

Author Bio

Alexandra Harris studied at Oxford and at the Courtauld Institute in London, and worked at Christie's for a year before returning to Oxford to write a doctorate on art and literature in the 1930s. She is now a lecturer in English at the University of Liverpool, running courses on Modernism and American writing, and leading the MA in Contemporary Literature. Her first full-length book, Romantic Moderns, published by Thames & Hudson, was the winner of the 2010 Guardian First Book Award. Alexandra Harris was also a winner in the BBC's 'New Generation Thinkers' contest in 2011.