Virginia Woolf Biography

The extensive essay, "A Room of One’s Own" is an evidence of Virginia’s feminist nature. The various lectures Woolf delivered in women’s colleges of Cambridge University formed the basis for this essay. By taking examples of personalities such as Charlotte Bronte and Jane Austen, Woolf explained the nature of women, their quest for independence and their struggle to achieve notable positions in literary fields and as artists. A lot of Virginia’s work revolves around social class hierarchy, gender relations and consequences of war. Virginia Woolf along with James Joyce, T.S. Eliot, Gertrude Stein and Ezra Pound is known to be a founder of the Modernist movement. Today, Woolf’s work is still widely read and used frequently for purposes of scholarly studies.

Woolf began her professional writing career in 1900. Her first novel The Voyage Out was published in 1915 followed by many more novels and essays of immense literary significance. On August 10, 1912, Virginia married writer Leonard Woolf. The couple collaborated to form the Hogarth Press which published the works of Virginia and other contemporary writers and artists. A severe spell of depression hit Woolf again after she finished the manuscript of her last novel. On March 28, 1941, Woolf committed suicide by drowning herself into a river by walking into it wearing an overcoat with pockets filled with stones. Her body was found on April 18, 1941.

Selected bibliography:

Novels:

• The Voyage Out (1915)
• Night and Day (1919)
• Jacob's Room (1922)
• Mrs Dalloway (1925)
• To the Lighthouse (1927)
• Orlando (1928)
• The Waves (1931)
• The Years (1937)
• Between the Acts (1941)

Short story collections:

• Kew Gardens (1919)
• Monday or Tuesday (1921)
• A Haunted House and Other Short Stories (1944)
• Mrs Dalloway's Party (1973)
• The Complete Shorter Fiction (1985)
• Carlyle's House and Other Sketches (2003)

Non-fiction books:

• Modern Fiction (1919)
• The Common Reader (1925)
• A Room of One's Own (1929)
• On Being Ill (1930)
• The London Scene (1931)
• The Common Reader: Second Series (1932)
• Three Guineas (1938)
• The Death of the Moth and Other Essays (1942)
• The Moment and Other Essays (1947)
• The Captain's Death Bed And Other Essays (1950)
• Granite and Rainbow (1958)
• Books and Portraits (1978)
• Women And Writing (1979)
• Collected Essays (four volumes)