Bibliography
Jan. 23rd, 2007 05:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_lady_lilyThe Autobiography of Leonard Woolf
So, this entry is about the autobiography of Leonard Woolf. All five volumes of it. They are Sowing (1960), Growing (1961), Beginning Again (1964), Downhill all the Way (1967) and The Journey not the Arrival Matters (1969). Each volume deals with a particular time period in some considerable detail, although Woolf does have a tendency to hop about in time depending on what he feels is relevant.
The wonderful thing about reading the autobiographical works is that you realise how much Leonard Woolf contributed to society apart from being Virgina Woolf's husband and looking after her mental health for as long as he did. Yes, that's a major part of it, and their relationship takes up a lot of the writing of the third, fourth and fifth volumes. Certain elements are quite strongly glossed over - Vita Sackville-West, for instance, appears in passing and as a friend, but the relationship between Virginia Woolf and Sackville-West never really makes it into Leonard Woolf's account; nor does the atmosphere of sexual liberation surrounding the Bloomsbury group, at least not in any detailed and scurrilous fashion. This, in some ways, is not a surprise. Woolf is quite happy to admit that he saw a great deal of social change from his youth, citing the free use of sexual language in Bloomsbury as an example, but doesn't mention the sexual habits. For which, fair enough - he is an eldery man in the 1960s and essentially writing for his own rather acerbic pleasure, and one is in no doubt that this is selective and choice recollection, however raw it appears on the surface from time to time.
The writing is simply beautiful. I freely admit that, when I decided to read these for the HM project, I was a bit worried I was letting myself in for a slog. Five volumes is, after all, five volumes. I was delighted to discover that Woolf's prose is elegant and easy to read, and full of interesting snippets. His account of his early life and education, up to leaving Cambridge, in Sowing is amazingly interesting for a whole realm of general reasons, and his account of life as a civil servant in Ceylon in Growing is equally fascinating. His decision to throw up life as a civil servant on the off-chance that Virginia Stephen, as she was then, might marry him is touching and dry at the same time. I don't think I've ever read prose like it before, at least not in this forum.
Another gem is the discussion of the reasons behind the launch of the Hogarth Press, and the complete haphazardness with which it was all set up by the Woolfs - essentially as a hobby rather than anything else, kept deliberately small, used as an outlet for Virgina's own work, with specific aesthetic aims. It really is astounding that they made a business out of it, and a very successful one at that, on no real training and essentially 'giving it a go'. I am fascinated, inspired and delighted all at once in my strange little manner. Especially since the Hogarth, rather bizaarely, became the major distributor of the word of Freud and publisher of psycho-analytic work in this country, for no readily apparent reason other than Leonard Woolf feeling like it.
I am quite seriously recommending this as reading for everyone. This is partially because poor old Leonard has rather fallen behind Virgina, and I think that's rather a shame. I'm adding his novel, The Village in the Jungle, to the List, as apparently it was quite good. But he lived a fascinating life and has a good way of speaking about it. I will freely admit once more that when he goes off onto politics, he can get a little turgid, but that's not to say he wasn't involved in important things. He was a member of the Labour Party Advisory Committee and the Civil Service Arbitration Tribunal, not to mention all sort of societies, as well as being editor of assorted important journals at various periods. Occasionally he gets a wee bit technical, but he comes out of it fairly quickly.
I enjoyed this series of books far more than I was expecting to, and the information contained therein is small and gemlike. Very much recommended reading if you have even the slightest interest in the period, and even if you don't, if you are British you should read Growing for a first-hand account of what Empire was actually like.
So, this entry is about the autobiography of Leonard Woolf. All five volumes of it. They are Sowing (1960), Growing (1961), Beginning Again (1964), Downhill all the Way (1967) and The Journey not the Arrival Matters (1969). Each volume deals with a particular time period in some considerable detail, although Woolf does have a tendency to hop about in time depending on what he feels is relevant.
The wonderful thing about reading the autobiographical works is that you realise how much Leonard Woolf contributed to society apart from being Virgina Woolf's husband and looking after her mental health for as long as he did. Yes, that's a major part of it, and their relationship takes up a lot of the writing of the third, fourth and fifth volumes. Certain elements are quite strongly glossed over - Vita Sackville-West, for instance, appears in passing and as a friend, but the relationship between Virginia Woolf and Sackville-West never really makes it into Leonard Woolf's account; nor does the atmosphere of sexual liberation surrounding the Bloomsbury group, at least not in any detailed and scurrilous fashion. This, in some ways, is not a surprise. Woolf is quite happy to admit that he saw a great deal of social change from his youth, citing the free use of sexual language in Bloomsbury as an example, but doesn't mention the sexual habits. For which, fair enough - he is an eldery man in the 1960s and essentially writing for his own rather acerbic pleasure, and one is in no doubt that this is selective and choice recollection, however raw it appears on the surface from time to time.
The writing is simply beautiful. I freely admit that, when I decided to read these for the HM project, I was a bit worried I was letting myself in for a slog. Five volumes is, after all, five volumes. I was delighted to discover that Woolf's prose is elegant and easy to read, and full of interesting snippets. His account of his early life and education, up to leaving Cambridge, in Sowing is amazingly interesting for a whole realm of general reasons, and his account of life as a civil servant in Ceylon in Growing is equally fascinating. His decision to throw up life as a civil servant on the off-chance that Virginia Stephen, as she was then, might marry him is touching and dry at the same time. I don't think I've ever read prose like it before, at least not in this forum.
Another gem is the discussion of the reasons behind the launch of the Hogarth Press, and the complete haphazardness with which it was all set up by the Woolfs - essentially as a hobby rather than anything else, kept deliberately small, used as an outlet for Virgina's own work, with specific aesthetic aims. It really is astounding that they made a business out of it, and a very successful one at that, on no real training and essentially 'giving it a go'. I am fascinated, inspired and delighted all at once in my strange little manner. Especially since the Hogarth, rather bizaarely, became the major distributor of the word of Freud and publisher of psycho-analytic work in this country, for no readily apparent reason other than Leonard Woolf feeling like it.
I am quite seriously recommending this as reading for everyone. This is partially because poor old Leonard has rather fallen behind Virgina, and I think that's rather a shame. I'm adding his novel, The Village in the Jungle, to the List, as apparently it was quite good. But he lived a fascinating life and has a good way of speaking about it. I will freely admit once more that when he goes off onto politics, he can get a little turgid, but that's not to say he wasn't involved in important things. He was a member of the Labour Party Advisory Committee and the Civil Service Arbitration Tribunal, not to mention all sort of societies, as well as being editor of assorted important journals at various periods. Occasionally he gets a wee bit technical, but he comes out of it fairly quickly.
I enjoyed this series of books far more than I was expecting to, and the information contained therein is small and gemlike. Very much recommended reading if you have even the slightest interest in the period, and even if you don't, if you are British you should read Growing for a first-hand account of what Empire was actually like.
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Date: 2007-01-24 12:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-24 03:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-29 01:20 am (UTC)(Apologies for the delay in commenting; I opened this post in a separate tab for later reading rather than just skimming it during normal friends-list-perusal.)