An essential figure in the literary society of her time and born just 141 years ago, Virginia Woolf continues to influence the culture of today.
As part of the styles of modernist writers, she is considered one of the greatest novelists of the 20th century.
His writing has deeply marked the modern novel of the 20th century by this writing of the flow of consciousness, its many visual and auditory details.
We have also often compared the work of Virginia Woolf to that of the Impressionist painters, with a writing of capture, which seeks to express sensations, evanescence.
To discover
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In the 1970s, she rose to the rank of feminist icon, mainly known for her novels Mrs Dalloway, Orlando but also for her essays Une chambre à soi and Trois guinées.
“It's writing that is the real pleasure;
to be read is only a superficial pleasure
,” she wrote.
Some of his lines have marked the history of literature.
Anthology.
"It's weird that we, who are capable of suffering so much, can inflict so much pain on people"
In
The Waves
(1931), Virginia Woolf delivers an analysis of the depths of the human being.
It is the most experimental novel of the English woman of letters appearing in the form of monologues spoken by the various characters of the novel.
The rest of the work is filled with descriptions that detail the beauty of nature.
"It's bizarre that we, who are capable of suffering so much, can inflict so much suffering on people"
, is taken from one of these interior monologues, giving a reflection on human nature.
“All these centuries, women have served as mirrors, endowed with the magical and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man, doubling its natural dimensions”
A cult reply, not devoid of humour, it alone sums up its denunciation of the condition of women.
In
A Room of One's Own
(1929), Virginia Woolf offers her thoughts on the status of women and literature in general, not hiding her admiration for well-known authors such as Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë.
Her essay is considered today a major work of feminist thought and the title refers to another quote from the book which sums up Woolf's main thesis on the subject:
"A woman must have money and a room in self if she wishes to be able to write stories.”
Something that was rare in England at the time.
“Life is a dream, it is the awakening that kills us”
Published in 1928, Orlando is a novel which presents itself as an imaginary biography with the main character who changes sex and eras.
It is dedicated to the poet Vita Sackville-West with whom Virginia Woolf had a romantic relationship.
The novel reveals an analysis of the balance of power between men and women in English societies, a theme dear to its author.
“The modest price of paper is the reason why women began by succeeding in literature before doing so in other professions”
The Death of the Moth
(1968) brings together several texts by Virginia Woolf, initially published in posthumous works or in reviews and newspapers.
We find there the usual themes of the English author such as death, madness but also beauty in each representation of the world.
She also delivers her thoughts on the status of women, including a reflection on the independence of women, which often involves writing.
“The modest price of paper is the reason why women first succeeded in literature before doing so in other professions”
echoes her own story.
"In marriage, you need a little freedom, a little independence to live together, every day of life, in the same house"
If you want to know the woman of letters intimately, you have to read her novel
Mrs Dalloway
(1925), published after the First World War.
It describes the day of a high society woman in England.
This book is one of the most emblematic of Virginia Woolf's work.
Around the heroine of the book, Mrs Dalloway, the reader is immersed in the thoughts of the different characters who converge on her.
The plot takes place in London, during a single day in 1923 where we follow the life of Mrs Dalloway, from morning to evening.
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Virginia Woolf breaks here with the traditional novel and establishes a modern writing with the reality of the world and a description of life in its complexity.
In this book, she distills some thoughts on marriage.
"In marriage, you need a little freedom, a little independence to live together, every day of life, in the same house"
, is not without reminding us of his own marriage with Leonard Woolf which will last until upon the author's death in 1941.
