Virginia Woolf

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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, traces the contentious course of her 'afterlife', 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 and shaped into the lasting patterns of art. It was also a courageous life, defiant of convention and marred by mental illness.

This book shows why, over seventy years after her death, Virginia Woolf continues to haunt and inspire us.

Reviews

'A masterclass in the art of slimming down scholarship without dumbing it down armed with the insights from this most enjoyable text, I cant wait to go back to the novels and try again' - Sussex Life
'A wonderfully perceptive, unpretentious study which is pacy in style, riveting in content and perfectly accessible to the most obdurate Woolf-avoider by the final page Harris has made you desperate to tackle the novels, to get stuck in and to submerge yourself in Woolfs unmistakable, wholly original and imaginative responses to the world' - Daily Mail
'The critical evaluations of Woolfs novels are elegant and searching an ideal introduction' - Financial Times
'Harris tells the story crisply and with personality, and the book is beautifully produced by Thames & Hudson' - Guardian
'A miracle of clarity and concision' - Washington Post

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, 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.