Woolf, Virginia (1882–1941)

Virginia Woolf, the famous English novelist, critic, essayist, and feminist, was born Adeline Virginia Stephen on January 25, 1882, in London, England. She grew up the daughter of a literary critic, therefore in an upper-class, literary family. She was taught at home and became a voracious reader of books from her father's library.

Woolf's mother died in 1895, after which Woolf suffered her first bout with mental illness. Severe depression and mania followed her throughout her life until her suicide in 1941.

Although Victorian society did not encourage women to participate in intellectual debate or even attend universities, Woolf wrote and published essays and reviews. In 1904, the same year that her father died, Woolf published her first essay. Within a year, she began writing professionally, initially for the Times Literary Supplement.

After the death of her father, Woolf and her siblings moved to the Bloomsbury area of London. Other young writers were drawn to Woolf and her siblings, and this group, later called the Bloomsbury group, began to meet on Thursday evenings to discuss taboo topics. In 1913, Woolf married Leonard Woolf, another member of the Bloomsbury group.

Woolf's works are frequently linked to the development of feminist criticism and the feminist movement. She was also an important writer in the Modernist movement because she helped revolutionize the novel with the stream of consciousness style of narrative.

Woolf's struggle with mental illness culminated on March 18, 1941, just as she was entering the beginning of another nervous breakdown that she feared would be permanent. Woolf committed suicide by placing stones in her pockets to weigh herself down and drowned herself in the River Ouse.

Although her life was only 59 years long, she is considered one of the foremost Modernist writers. During her life, she was a significant member of the literary circle in London, and today she is recognized for her contribution to Modernism and feminism.