Virginia Woolf: A Portrait

by Viviane Forrester

  13. very quick: MB, 83. the sad: MB, 83. All life: Quentin Bell, Virginia Woolf: A Biography (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1972), 13. an exhausted: MB, 39.

  14. MB, 32.

  15. MB, 83.

  16. MB, 82.

  17. omnibus expert: MB, 121. shabby cloak: MB, 36. Your feet: MB, 37. excited many instincts: MB, 42–43. would insist: MB, 43. that passive: MB, 96. Old Cow: MB, 97. almost canine: MB, 96.

  18. tease: MB, 114. with pretty: MB, 114. as she came: MB, 82. I was playing: MB, 82.

  19. MB, 82.

  20. one, two: MB, 66. Vanessa and I: MB, 68. It was like being: MB, 95.

  21. MB, 40.

  22. Hold yourself: MB, 84. She always liked: MB, 92. It’s nice that: MB, 92.

  23. Italics are my own.

  24. I think of: November 23, 1940. D.v, 341. All this afternoon: VW to Lady Tweedsmuir. March 21, 1941. L.vi, 483.

  25. his pale eyes: MB, 107. Whats to: June 20, 1940. D.v, 297. Today the dictators: MB, 107. I sit: MB, 107.

  26. was impossible: MB, 108. How deep they: MB, 108.

  27. Quite naturally: MB, 45. almost welcome: MB, 45. the sharp pang: MB, 45. Recognizable: MB, 45. hideous as it was: MB, 45.

  28. SLS, 92.

  29. see SLS, 12, for example.

  30. my darling Minny: SLS, 9. her beautiful: SLS, 18n. She was a poem: SLS, 19.

  31. Her Ladyship: As quoted in HL, 102. backward: SLS, 44.

  32. besides the: MB, 182. a vacant-eyed: MB, 182.

  33. Letter, Leslie Stephen to Julia Stephen, April 29, 1881. The Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection, New York Public Library, as cited in HL, 102.

  34. SLS, 92.

  35. VW to VB. November 13, 1921. L.ii, 492.

  36. not only had: MB, 184. incarcerated with: MB, 184.

  37. VS to VD. December 6, 1904. L.i, 164.

  38. VW to VB. May 4, 1934. As cited in HL, 104.

  39. SLS, 47.

  40. There is a touch: SLS, 36. Unqualified … lover: SLS, 36–37.

  41. in those days: MB, 106. choked us: MB, 45.

  42. any comfort: MB, 45. Whatever comfort: MB, 41. suddenly she: MB, 41.

  43. darling Julia: SLS, 36. She found that: MB, 48.

  44. MB, 108.

  45. she gave indiscriminately: MB, 45. his right: MB, 45. could not give: MB, 48.

  46. Leslie Stephen to Stella Hills, April 10, 1897. Leslie Stephen, Selected Letters of Leslie Stephen, Volume 2, ed. John W. Bicknell (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1996), 474.

  47. Old Cow: MB, 97. often one: MB, 94.

  48. Leslie Stephen to Stella Hills, April 13, 1897. Stephen, Selected Letters of Leslie Stephen, Volume 2, 475.

  49. impossible to: MB, 108. One of the consequences: MB, 45.

  50. MB, 107.

  51. Italics are my own.

  52. illicit: MB, 145. illicit need: MB, 145. stirred in him: MB, 146.

  53. MB, 136.

  54. other words: MB, 56. an extraordinary: MB, 144. Have you no: MB, 144. unbound contempt: MB, 144.

  55. VS to VD. Early October 1903. L.i, 98.

  56. MB, 145.

  57. MB, 108.

  58. illicit: MB, 145. chronic state: MB, 45.

  59. strange: MB, 146. whatever: MB, 145.

  60. violent: MB, footnote ‡ on 145. illicit: MB, 146.

  61. dependence: MB, 145. to sympathize: MB, 145.

  62. the horror: MB, 144. It was like: MB, 116.

  63. next victim: MB, 56. tasked Stella’s: MB, 55.

  64. Another lion appears in To the Lighthouse in the form of Mr. Ramsay, through the eyes of the prudish Lily Briscoe: “he was like a lion seeking whom he could devour, and his face had that touch of desperation, of exaggeration in it which alarmed her, and made her pull her skirts about her” (To the Lighthouse, 233). MB, 116.

  65. MB, 146.

  66. MB, 111.

  67. his honesty: MB, 110. his attractiveness: MB, 111.

  68. replaced the beauty: MB, 56. very small: MB, 111. in league: MB, 111.

  69. I remember: MB, 112. Slowly he would: MB, 157. feeling proud: MB, 158.

  70. MB, 46.

  71. VS to VD. March 4, 1904. L.i, 131.

  72. VW to V-SW. March 2, 1926. L.iii, 245.

  73. Do I love: PA, xliv n 61. Quoted from the holograph version of The Years, Vol. VII, August 5, 1934. I think: January 21, 1918. D.i, 110.

  74. the thing that exists: October 30, 1926. D.iii, 114. Mr. Ramsay: TL, 105.

  75. Y, 49.

  76. leered at her: Y, 28. as if to stop her: Y, 28. he did not stretch: Y, 29.

  77. Breakdown: Bell, Virginia Woolf, 44. madness: Bell, Virginia Woolf, 44.

  78. Italics are my own.

  79. Bell, Virginia Woolf, 44.

  80. vitally important: Bell, Virginia Woolf, 44. To know that … the cure of death: Bell, Virginia Woolf, 44.

  81. black and: MB, 100. for it was: MB, 50. Stella and Mr Hills: MB, 50. Blushing: MB, 50. she was: MB, 101. Did mother: MB, 101.

  82. My Joy: MB, 83. the blow: MB, 50. clumsy, cruel: MB, 106.

  83. bluer: MB, 105. incandescence: MB, 105. something of moonlight: MB, 105.

  84. Leslie Stephen to Charles Norton, January 10, 1897. Harvard. As quoted in HL, 137.

  85. very white: April 10, 1897. PA, 68. in her sleep: April 10, 1897. PA, 68. It was half: April 10, 1897. PA, 68.

  86. April 10, 1897. PA, 68.

  87. MB, 136.

  88. April 28, 1897. PA, 77.

  89. frightening: April 29, 1897. PA, 77. No getting rid: April 29, 1897. PA, 77. Macauley: April 29, 1897. PA, 77.

  90. Pleased … happy: April 30, 1897. PA, 78–79. still more … cheerful: June 6, 1897. PA, 96.

  91. That old cow: PA. Mr. Henry James: PA, 54.

  92. Hyde St: June 2, 1897. PA, 94. I managed: May 9, 1897. PA, 83. had the pleasure: May 12, 1897. PA, 85.

  93. funny stories: May 27, 1897. PA, 91.

  94. the greatest: May 1, 1897. PA, 79. ’Ginia is devouring: SLS, 103.

  95. so bad for Stella: July 7, 1897. PA, 112. that old: July 9, 1897. PA, 112–13.

  96. big chair: July 11, 1897. PA, 113. We talked: July 11, 1897. PA, 113.

  97. July 15, 1897. PA, 114.

  98. July 24, 1897. PA, 116.

  99. MB, 69.

  100. MB, 171.

  101. VW to Emma Vaughn. August 8, 1901. L.i, 43.

  102. MB, 156.

  103. MB, 168.

  104. dear old Bar: VS to George Duckworth: April 22, 1900. L.i, 31. Nessa’s … grateful to you: VS to George Duckworth: April 26, 1900. L.i, 32.

  105. He paid: MB, 157 footnote *. How could we: MB, 157.

  106. I vividly: SLS, 35. I think that: SLS, 35.

  107. has a calm: VS to VB, July 25 (?) 1911. L.i, 472. Whew: VS to VB, July 25 (?) 1911. L.i, 472.

  108. that gigantic: VW to VB, February 20, 1922. L.ii, 505. I am going: VW to VB, February 20, 1922. L.ii, 505. Dont you: VW to VB, February 20, 1922. L.ii, 505.

  109. VW to LS, September 8, 1925. L.iii, 206.

  110. carpet of duckweed: August 18, 1899. “Extract from the Huntingdonshire Gazette: Terrible Tragedy in a Duckpond,” in Virginia Woolf, PA, 151; and Virginia Woolf, “A Terrible Tragedy in a Duck Pond,” in A Cezanne in the Hedge and Other Memories of Charleston and Bloomsbury, ed. Hugh Lee (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993), 178. the green shroud: August 18, 1899. “Extract from the Huntingdonshire Gazette” in Virginia Woolf, PA, 151. The angry waters: August 18, 1899. “Extract from the Huntingdonshire Gazette,” in Virginia Woolf, PA, 151. The corpses, however: Virginia Woolf, “A Terrible Tragedy in a Duck Pond,” in Lee, ed., A Cezanne in the Hedge, 182.

  111. I sank & sank: Virginia Woolf, “A Terrible Tragedy in a Duck Pond,” in Lee, ed., A Cezanne in the Hedge, 183. hair & body: Virginia Woolf, “A Terrible Tragedy in a Duck Pond,” in Lee, ed., A Cezanne in the Hedge, 185.

  112. February 22, 1930. D.iii, 293.

  113. Did you go: VW to V
B, May 4, 1934. L.v, 299. the batting: May 2, 1934, D.iv, 211.

  114. MB, 57.

  115. a stupid: MB, 57. modified, confused: MB, 58. little plans: MB, 58.

  116. VW to VB, November 13, 1921. Joanne Trautmann Banks, ed., Congenial Spirits: The Selected Letters of Virginia Woolf (San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1989), 138.

  117. MB, 108.

  118. MB, 108.

  119. Virginia Woolf, Between the Acts (New York: Harcourt, 1941), 219.

  Part 3

  1. November 1, 1940. D.v, 335.

  2. VW to Jacques Raverat, March 8, 1924. L.i, ii, 93.

  3. There is nothing: VS to VD, August 1905. L.i, 204. I sometimes: VS to VD, April 30, 1903. L.i, 75. Wonderful strength: VS to VD, December (?) 1903. L.i, 117. If only: VS to VD, December 25, 1903. L.i, 118. I know: VS to VD, February 1904. L.i, 124. We have: VS to Janet Case, February 1904. L.i, 124.

  4. November 28, 1928. D.iii, 208.

  5. VS to Thoby Stephen, May 1903. L.i, 76.

  6. A place to: VS to Emma Vaughan, April 25, 1904. L.i, 138. Geralds figure: VS to VD. March 1904. L.i, 134.

  7. MB, 92.

  8. MD, 14.

  9. VS to CB, September 4, 1910. L.i, 434.

  10. MD, 67.

  11. No crime: MD, 67. the trees waved: MD, 69. Men must not: MD, 24.

  12. MD, 91.

  13. among the orchids: MD, 70. But I am: MD, 70. Now … fascinated him: MD, 66.

  14. MD, 70.

  15. MD, 98.

  16. My food is: VS to VD, June 30, 1903. L.i, 83. I went to: VB to VS, December 7, 1904. VBL, 27.

  17. VS to VD, October/November 1902. L.i, 60.

  18. VS to VD, July 7, 1903. L.i, 85.

  19. Would you like: VS to VD, late September 1903. L.i, 96. Who thinks: VS to VD, December 5, 1906. L.i, 257. I wish you: VS to VD, June 4, 1903. L.i, 79.

  20. VS to VD, September 22 (?), 1904. L.i, 142.

  21. Jane Dunn, A Very Close Conspiracy: Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf (London: Jonathan Cape, 1990), 54.

  22. MB, 195.

  23. satisfied: see for example, November 7 (?), 1906. VW, L.i, 239. “irritation caused by”: VS to VD, November 9 (?), 1906. L.i, 241.

  24. February 7, 1931. D.iv, 10.

  25. My Violet: VS to VD, December 2, 1906. L.i, 255. Dear old Thoby: VS to VD, November 29, 1906. L.i, 253. Thoby slept better: VS to VD, November 30 (?), 1906. L.i, 254. He is not: VS to VD, December 2, 1906. L.i, 256. A great many: VS to VD, December 10, 1906. L.i, 259.

  26. We are really: VS to VD, July 23, 1903. L.i, 86. I am the happiest: VW to ES, April 7, 1931. L.iv, 303.

  27. Almost on the: December 1906 edition of The National Review I. As quoted in L.i, 266n1. You must think: VS to VD, December 18, 1906. L.i, 266.

  28. Dunn, A Very Close Conspiracy, 54.

  29. elderly and prosaic: VS to VD, February 1907. L.i, 279. a heavy hand: VS to VD, July 7, 1903. L.i, 85.

  30. think very: VS to Madge Vaughan, December 17, 1906. L.i, 265. clever, and: VS to Madge Vaughan, December 17, 1906. L.i, 265. When I think: VS to VD, December 30 (?), 1906. L.i, 273. It will really be: VS to VD, October 15 (?), 1907. L.i, 316. Tawny and jubilant: VS to VD, January 3, 1907. L.i, 275. I did not: VS to VD, January 3, 1907. L.i, 276.

  31. VS to Madge Vaughan, February 15, 1907. L.i, 283.

  32. Poor little boy: VS to VD, December 22, 1906. L.i, 269. The old despair: December 3, 1923. D.ii, 277.

  33. As cited by Jean MacGibbon, There’s the Lighthouse: A Biography of Adrian Stephen (London: James & James, 1997), 49.

  34. We perish: TL, 140. I beneath: TL, 140. Here, Virginia echoes the last verse of William Cowper’s poem “The Castaway” (1799).

  35. Hyde Park Gate News, September 9, 1892. As quoted in HL, 33.

  36. Virginia’s body was not found until three weeks after she drowned.

  37. Adrian Stephen to VB, April 1941, as cited by MacGibbon, There’s the Lighthouse, 152.

  38. I begin to: VS to VD, December 25, 1904. L.i, 169. When I see: VS to Lady Cecil McGibbons, December 22, 1904. L.i, 168. the writer of: VS to VD. July 7, 1907. L.i, 299. I cant help: VS to Madge Vaughan. December 1, 1904. L.i, 162.

  39. I could be wed: VS to VD, December 16, 1906. L.i, 263. Now do you know: VS to VD, December 16, 1906. L.i, 264.

  40. I have been: VS to VD, September 22, 1907. L.i, 311. Who was: VS to VB, August 4, 1908. L.i, 342. dreadful weariness: September 19, 1907. PA, 374.

  41. We both very: VW to Margaret Llewelyn Davies, December 31, 1918. L.ii, 313. You’ve given: VW to VB, March 15, 1940. L.vi, 385.

  42. It is like: VB to CB, June 1910. Tate Gallery London (Charleston). As quoted in Dunn, A Very Close Conspiracy, 124. I always: December 22, 1927. D.iii, 168.

  43. VW to VB, February 20, 1922. L.ii, 506.

  44. my affair: VW to Gwen Raverat, March 22, 1925. L. iii, 172. turned more of: VW to Gwen Raverat, March 22, 1925. L. iii, 172.

  45. a permanent: Angelica Garnett, Deceived with Kindness: A Bloomsbury Childhood (London: Pimlico, 1984), 28. Aloud: MB, 108.

  46. VS to VD, May 13, 1908. L.i, 331.

  47. VS to CB, April 15, 1908. L.i, 325.

  48. The main point: VS to CB, May 1908. L.i, 334. Why do you: VS to CB, May 6, 1908. L.i, 329. Ah—such: As cited by Dunn, A Very Close Conspiracy, 116. I wished: CB to VS, May 7, 1908. University of Sussex Library, as quoted in Frances Spalding, Vanessa Bell (New Haven and New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1983), 73.

  49. Dont forget: HL, 250. Your wife gave: VS to CB, December 25, 1908. L.i, 376.

  50. Ah! there’s: VS to VB, August 10, 1909. L.i, 406. Shall you kiss: VS to VB, August 14 1908. L.i, 354.

  51. VS to CB, November 14 (?), 1910. L.i, 439.

  52. VW to ES, August 15, 1930. L.iv, 200.

  53. VS to CB, August 19, 1908. L.i, 356.

  54. VS to CB, February 7, 1909. L.i, 383.

  55. Tout va bien: CB to VS, August 7, 1908. University of Sussex Library, as quoted in Spalding, Vanessa Bell, 74. I sometimes: CB to VS, August 3, 1908. University of Sussex Library, as quoted in Spalding, Vanessa Bell, 74.

  56. CB to VS, February 5 (?), 1909. “Appendix D” of “Volume I” in Quentin Bell, Virginia Woolf: A Biography (New York: Harcourt, Brace Jovanovich, 1972), 208.

  57. To give more: CB to VS, February 5 (?), 1909. “Appendix D” of “Volume I” in Bell, Virginia Woolf, 209. It seemed to: CB to VS, February 5 (?), 1909. “Appendix D of “Volume I” in Bell, Virginia Woolf, 209.

  58. VS to CB, February 7, 1909. L.i, 383.

  59. VW to LS, February 26, 1915. L.ii, 61.

  60. VW to CB, July 24, 1917. L.ii, 167.

  61. CB to LW, “Appendix D of “Volume I” in Bell, Virginia Woolf, 212.

  62. VB to VS, August 11, 1908. VBL, 66–67.

  63. VS to VB, August 12, 1908. L.i, 350–51.

  64. Dunn, A Very Close Conspiracy, 54.

  65. June 20, 1928. D.iii, 186.

  66. VB to VS, August 11, 1908. VBL, 67.

  67. like an elephant: VB to VS, August 11, 1908. VBL, 67. Has Hilton Young: VB to VS. August 13, 1908. VBL, 68. No answer: VS to VB, August 12 1908. L.i, 351. Nothing from H.Y.: VS to VB, August 14, 1908. L.i, 354. all the lovers: VS to VB, August 20, 1908. L.i, 357.

  68. I’m only: VS to Emma Vaughan, August 1908. L.i, 359. till the: VS to Emma Vaughan, August 1908. L.i, 360.

  69. VS to Madge Vaughan. November 19, 1908. L.i, 373.

  70. VS to LS, February 1, 1909. L.i, 382.

  71. VB to VS, February 7, 1909. The Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection, New York Public Library. As quoted in Dunn, A Very Close Conspiracy, 122.

  72. VS to CB, April 13, 1909. L.i, 391.

  73. VB to Margery Snowden, May 10, 1909. Monk’s House Papers. As quoted in “Volume I” of Bell, Virginia Woolf, 144.

  74. There are 6: April 18, 1918. D.i, 140. Oh Roger, how horribly: VB to Roger Fry, July 5, 1911. VBL, 105. Oh Roger, it was delicious: VB to Roger Fry, October 12, 1912. VBL, 129.

&n
bsp; 75. Do you really: VB to CB, October 11, 1911. VBL, 108–9. Are you: VB to CB, January 15, 1912. VBL, 115.

  76. TL, 165.

  77. David Garnett to LS, December 25, 1918. British Library, Manuscript Department. As quoted by Spalding, Vanessa Bell, 177.

  78. DG to Bunny, May 6, 1915. As quoted in Spalding, Vanessa Bell, 141.

  79. Duncan Grant, journal, as quoted in Spalding, Vanessa Bell, 172.

  80. My visit to: August 16, 1918. D.i, 182. The rather: January 3, 1918. D.i, 94. Without sympathy: January 3, 1918. D.i, 94.

  81. VB to DG, July 29, 1919. VBL, 233–34.

  82. Duncan Grant, journal, as quoted in Frances Spalding, Vanessa Bell (New York and New Haven: Ticknor & Fields, 1983), 172.

  83. Duncan Grant, journal, as quoted in Spalding, Vanessa Bell, 172–73.

  84. Please don’t: VB to DG, February 7, 1930: VBL, 352. But the fact: VB to DG., February 13, 1930. Henrietta Cooper. As quoted in Spalding, Vanessa Bell, 238.

  85. VB to DG, February 5, 1930. VBL, 350.

  86. I have now: August 19, 1929. D.iii, 242–43. You and: VW to VB, April 14, 1927. L.iii, 363.

  87. VB to VW, February 5, 1927. VBL, 313.

  88. VB to CB, December 27, 1912. VBL, 132.

  89. could not dispel: MD, 31. like a nun: MD, 31. It was all over: MD, 47.

  90. cancer of the mind: “Volume I” in Bell, Virginia Woolf, 44. corruption of the spirit: “Volume I” in Bell, Virginia Woolf, 44.

  91. W, 159.

  92. LW.iii, 172–73.

  93. LW.iii, 81.

  94. As quoted in HL, 72.

  95. Vincent to Theo van Gogh, March 24, 1889. Letter #752 Br. 1990: 756 | CL: 581 (Brieven 1990 756, Complete Letters 581).

  96. LW.iii, 158.

  97. It was primitive: LW.iii, 153. Nothing could: LW.iii, 153.

  98. LW.iii, 155

  99. LW.iii, 157.

  100. LW.iii, 158–59.

  101. LW.iii, 73.

  102. LW.iii, 74–75.

  103. LW.iii, 91.

  104. June 14, 1925. D.iii, 30.

  105. I’ve not: VW to LW, August 3, 1913. L.ii, 33. I do believe: VW to LW, August 4, 1913. L.ii, 34. I have been: VW to LW, August 5, 1913. L.ii, 34. To begin: VW to LW, December 4, 1913. L.ii, 35.

  106. VW to LW, December? 1913. L.ii, 35.

  107. always running: VW to LW, September 28, 1928. L.iii, 539. Poor Mandrill: VW to LW, September 25, 1928. L.iii, 535. We adore: VW to LW, September 28, 1928. L.iii, 539.

  108. Virginia Woolf, The Voyage Out (London: Penguin, 1992), 6.