the novels of virginia woolf hermione lee

Her book moves freely between a richly detailed life-story and new attempts to understand crucial questions - the impact of her childhood, the cause and nature of her madness and suicide, the truth about her marriage, her feelings for women, her prejudies and obsessions. Hermione Lee sees Virginia Woolf afresh, in her historical setting and as a vital figure for our times. 'About this title' may belong to another edition of this title.īook Description Paperback. Accessible, intelligent, and deeply pleasurable to read, her Virginia Woolf will undoubtedly take its place as the standard biography for years to come. It is not often that biography offers the satisfactions of great fiction - but this is clearly what Hermione Lee has achieved.

Such issues as sexual abuse, mental illness, and suicide are brought into balance with the immensity of her literary achievement, her heroic commitment to her work, her generosity and wit, and her sanity and strength. Subscribing to Virginia Woolf's own belief in the fluidity and elusiveness of identity, Lee comes at her subject from a multitude of perspectives, producing a richly layered portrait of the writer and the woman that leaves all of her complexities and contradictions intact. While Virginia Woolf - one of our century's most brilliant and mercurial writers - has had no shortage of biographers, none has seemed as naturally suited to the task as Hermione Lee.

The novels of virginia woolf hermione lee