Virginia Woolf: A Portrait

Viviane Forrester

May 2015 · Columbia University Press

About this ebook

Winner of the prestigious Prix Goncourt award for biography, this remarkable portrait sheds new light on Virginia Woolf's relationships with her family and friends and how they shaped her work. Virginia Woolf: A Portrait blends recently unearthed documents, key primary sources, and personal interviews with Woolf's relatives and other acquaintances to render in unmatched detail the author's complicated relationship with her husband, Leonard; her father, Leslie Stephen; and her half-sister, Vanessa Bell. Forrester connects these figures to Woolf's mental breakdown while introducing the concept of "Virginia seule," or Virginia alone: an uncommon paragon of female strength and conviction. Forrester's biography inhabits her characters and vivifies their perspective, weaving a colorful, intense drama that forces readers to rethink their understanding of Woolf, her writing, and her world.

About the author

Viviane Forrester (1925-2013) was a writer, essayist, novelist, and literary critic. She worked for Le Monde, Le Nouvel Observateur, and Quinzaine littéraire and was a member of the jury of the Prix Femina. She translated Virginia Woolf's essay "Three Guineas" and is the author of The Economic Horror, Van Gogh ou l'Enterrement dans les blés, and Une etrange dictature.

Jody Gladding is a poet who has translated some thirty works from French.