Virginia Woolf: A Portrait

by Viviane Forrester

  ——. The Letters of Virginia Woolf, Volume 6: 1936–1941. Ed. Nigel Nicolson and Joanne Trautmann. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1979.

  ——. Moments of Being. Ed. Jeanne Schulkind. San Diego: Harcourt, 1985.

  ——. Mrs. Dalloway. Orlando: Harcourt, 1925.

  ——. Orlando. San Diego: Harcourt, 1928.

  ——. A Passionate Apprentice: The Early Journals: 1897–1909. Ed. Mitchell A. Leaska. London: Hogarth Press, 1990.

  ——. “Professions for Women.” In Collected Essays, Volume 2. New York: Harcourt and Brace, 1967.

  ——. Three Guineas. New York: Harcourt, 1938.

  ——. To the Lighthouse. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992.

  ——. The Voyage Out. London: Hogarth Press, 1957.

  ——. The Waves. Orlando: Harcourt, 1931.

  ——. The Years. London: Hogarth Press, 1951.

  Zwerdling, Alex. Virginia Woolf and the Real World. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986.

  INDEX

  Page numbers refer to the print edition but are hyperlinked to the appropriate location in the e-book.

  Virginia Woolf is abbreviated as VW; Leonard Woolf is abbreviated as LW. Headings and subheadings containing the term “correspondence” refer to letters as source material, and the name of the source may not actually be found on the page.

  Abrahamson, Sir Martin, 54, 212n133

  The Academy, 116

  “Angel in the House,” 50, 72, 181

  Anthrep, Helen, 135

  anti-Semitism: of T. S. Eliot, 165; LW on treatment of Jews under Nazism, 184; of Nazis, Three Guineas comparing oppression of women to, 46, 180–181; of Jacques Raverat, 48; WWII and unfashionability of, 186. See also Hitler, Adolf, and Nazism; World War II

  ——of Bloomsbury group: as ambient, taken for granted, 34, 39, 47, 56, 58–59; of Clive Bell, 44–45; of Vanessa Bell, 47, 66; as contradicted by politics of group, 46; Hitler/Nazi rise as facilitated by, 39, 45, 53, 58; of John Maynard Keynes, 48; postwar, 66; and respect given to LW, 48; and Adrian Stephen, 121; of Lytton Strachey, 34; Leonard Woolf adopting attitude of indifference to, 9, 33–35, 39, 48–49, 66

  ——of VW: as contradicted by her politics, 46, 47, 56–57; as contradicted by Three Guineas, 46, 56–57; denial/elision of, by biographers, 56; evolution of, and claiming of Jewishness for herself, 56, 58–59; exclusion of LW’s family from wedding ceremony, 39–40, 44; as expressed in The Years, 53–55, 58; and forbidding of children done by LW, 44–45; and illness/crisis suffered immediately after marriage to LW, 39; “Jew” as label for LW, and label of VW as “mad,” 40, 148; LW as exceptional Jew, 12, 35, 38, 39, 44, 48, 52, 59; as paradoxical compared to her literary practice, 47; as racial, 45–46, 47, 52; as resentment in marriage, 40, 52; and social humiliation of marriage and in-laws, 38–40, 44, 47–52; vehemence of, as unexamined, 38–39, 47, 49–50, 52, 53

  Artaud, Antonin, 143, 158

  Bagenal, Barbara (née Hiles), 166; correspondence with VW, 165

  Bagenal, Nicholas, 166

  Bell, Angelica. See Garnett, Angelica

  Bell, Clive, 66, 132, 160; and acceptance of Vanessa’s various relationships, 129, 133, 134, 135, 136, 160; affairs of, 127, 129; affair with VW (as Virginia Stephen), 123–127, 129, 131, 132–133, 135, 177, 187; at Charleston, 135; correspondence with Mary Hutchinson, 45; correspondence with LW, 130; correspondence with Molly McCarthy, 44–45; correspondence with VW, 64, 113, 126–127, 128–129, 164; and death of Lytton Strachey, 162; engagement and wedding to Vanessa Stephen, 118–119, 124; exclusion felt by VW at marriage to Vanessa, 118–119; as father, 124, 129, 136, 137; and Mary Hutchinson, 135; LW on, 29–30, 119; nickname of (“the parrot”), 129; personality and background of, 128; postwar costume ball, 66; as reader of VW’s manuscripts, 127–130; on VW’s focus in life (“when a butterfly comes through the window”), 20; work of, 128

  Bell, Julian (nephew), 124, 127, 129, 135–136, 164; correspondence with VW, 51; death of, in Spanish Civil War, 177–178, 179; and Maynard Keynes, 172; relationship with mother Vanessa, 177–178; VW writing about Vanessa’s childhood for, 107

  Bell, Quentin (nephew), 124, 129, 135–136, 164; on children and VW, 42; correspondence with VW, 47, 51, 175; on “frigidity” of VW, 19–20; introduction to Diary of Virginia Woolf, 66; name change from Claudian to Quentin, 39; personal charm of, 19; and postwar anti-Semitism, 66; on Three Guineas, 179; on vulnerability of VW to criticism, 258

  ——Virginia Woolf: A Biography: on children and VW, 43; on exclusion of Mrs. Woolf from wedding ceremony, 39–40; frigidity of VW as assumption in, 6, 19–20, 22; as instinctive revenge, 5–6, 19; LW’s views as controlling content of, 5–6, 30; madness of VW as assumption and diagnosis in, 6, 43, 93–95, 109, 142; on marriage, VW desire for, 38; as standard for debate on VW’s life, 6; on Julia Stephen, 72; and VW affair with Clive Bell, 123

  Bell, Vanessa (née Stephen, nicknamed “Nessa”), 132, 164, 175; anti-Semitism of, 47, 66; attachment to, VW describing in terms of love affair, 124, 130–131, 140–141, 177–178, 200; and George Bergen, 140; and betrayal of VW (as Virginia Stephen) affair with Clive Bell, 123–127, 129, 132–133, 135, 177, 187; and Bloomsbury (46 Gordon Square), 111, 116; and Charleston, 135–136; and crisis of VW following death of father, 115; and death of Lytton Strachey, 137, 162; and death of mother, 77, 86; and death of son Julian, 177–178; and denial of children to VW, 41; and desire for VW to marry, 132, 133; and George Duckworth, 103, 107; and George Duckworth, incestuous climate created by, 102–108, 146–147, 183, 198; and Stella Duckworth, 96–97, 99, 101–102; early meetings with LW, 8–9, 37; engagement and wedding to Clive Bell, 118–119, 124; and father, rages of, 86–89; and father, rejection of, 102, 140; father as supportive of her painting, 90, 136; importance of VW assumed to derive from association with, 19; and instinctive revenge via Quentin Bell’s biography, 5–6; and London, enjoyment of, 93; LW descriptions of, 29–30; as mother, 124, 135–136; nickname of (“Dolphin,” “Dolph”), 134, 150, 178; as painter, 90, 127, 136, 178; physical characteristics of, 29–30, 136, 210n72; reaction to Reminiscences, 176; as reader of VW’s manuscripts, 130; relationship with Roger Fry, 129, 133–134, 139, 141, 177, 186–188; relationship with David (Bunny) Garnett, 136, 137–139, 140; relationship with Duncan Grant, 125, 129, 134–140, 164, 176–177; on Vita Sackville-West and VW, 176–177; sexuality/sex life of, imaginings of VW vs. reality of, 123–125, 134–135, 136, 141; society entrance of, 99, 102–103; as tomboy, 74; at wedding of LW and VW, 39

  ——correspondence: with Clive Bell, 124, 134, 141; with Roger Fry, 134; with Angelica Garnett, 66; with Duncan Grant, 44, 138–139, 140, 176–177; with John Maynard Keynes, 48; with LW, 41; with Adrian Stephen, 122; with VW, 15–16, 18, 36–37, 42, 52, 80, 81, 105, 107, 115, 123, 124, 130, 131, 132–133, 141, 166, 174, 175, 176, 177–178, 187, 199; with VW, nature of, 126, 131, 150

  bereavements, succession of: Stella Duckworth, 70, 86, 98–102, 108, 194; everyday world in contrast to, 3–4; invented daily life of Thoby Stephen after his death, 117–118; as never healed, 75–76, 194; Julia Stephen, 50, 69–70, 71–72, 73, 75, 77–78, 90, 92, 98, 101, 108, 112, 119, 120, 194, 198; Leslie Stephen, 85, 109–110, 111–115; Thoby Stephen, 16, 111, 113, 117–118, 119, 120, 132, 194; “the world has raised its whip,” 70, 98, 100, 113

  Bergen, George, 140

  Between the Acts: affinity with LW’s Wise Virgins, 36; on breaking the code of silence, 108; completion of, 198–199; as farewell, 186, 191; on lack of articulation, 201; and “The Symbol,” writing of, 194; VW decision not to publish, 201; and water, 191–192; working title of (Point’z Hall), 195, 225n40

  birds, Thoby Stephen and, 113

  Bloomsbury, 46 Gordon Square: Vanessa Bell finding and organizing, 111; emancipation for Virginia and Vanessa Stephen via, 110–111, 116; neighborhood considered dubious, 109, 111, 116; taboos removed from conversation, 116; Thursday evening gatherings, 116; Virginia and Adrian Stephen move away from, 118–119

&nbs
p; Bloomsbury group: affection outliving intimacy, as value in, 2, 134, 159–164, 173; Clive Bell and, 127, 128; Quentin Bell biography as convincing to, 5–6; casual tone of, 34; criticizing behind each other’s backs, 48; as cultural influence, 160; implicit rejection of VW, 19; madness of VW as assumption in, 23, 42–43; Memoir Club, 66, 102, 103, 190; Ben Nicolson’s critique of, 190–191; personal freedom as genius of, 160; postwar, 66; psychoanalysis and Freud and, 182–183; as rampart of support for VW the author, 155, 157, 159–160, 185, 186, 195–196; reputations of, as differing sharply from personal truth, 2–3; secrets leaked by, 2; Adrian Stephen and, 121; Three Guineas, reception of, 178; WWII and dispersal of, 186, 189. See also anti-Semitism and Bloomsbury group

  Brenan, Gerald, 161; correspondence with LW, 22, 23, 192

  Brooke, Rupert, 29

  Brunswick Square, 37–38

  Cambridge Apostles, 7, 8, 9, 34, 111, 144, 166

  Cameron, Mrs. (photographer), 71

  Carrington, Dora, 135, 166; as painter, 161; relationship with Lytton Strachey, 161–164; suicide of, 162, 163–164

  Case, Janet, 105; correspondence with VW, 49

  Cecil, Lady Robert (Lady Cecil McGibbons), correspondence with VW, 12, 122

  Ceylon: LW as colonialist in, 7–9, 10–12, 13–14, 16–17, 18, 37; LW return to, with Trekkie Parson, 65

  Cézanne, Paul, 134

  Charleston (Bell home), 135–136, 160

  Chatto & Windus, 61, 64–65

  children forbidden to VW: anti-Semitism of VW and, 44–45; and daily glass of milk, 23–24, 156; fame as substitute for, 42; Hogarth Press as child to LW, 64; illness/crisis precipitated by, 42–43, 142–146; LW as engineering, 23–24, 41–44, 142, 145; LW’s own frailties projected on VW, 23–24; novels as substitute for, 43–44, 176; VW’s desire for children, 38, 40, 41–42, 124, 187–188

  code of silence: and incestuous climate created by Leslie Stephen, 77, 83, 86, 88, 89, 108, 193; Ethyl Smyth allowing VW to escape from, 175

  Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 191

  Cowper, William, 100; “The Castaway,” 218n34

  Cox, Katherine, correspondence with VW, 24, 52

  Dalindridge, convalescence at, 106, 146–147

  Davies, Margaret Llewelyn, 56, 58, 59, 124

  depressions of VW: affair with Clive Bell and, 132; diary manifesting, as cyclical to mentions of father, 76, 110, 193–194; distinguished from “madness,” 144; LW on, just prior to suicide, 198–199. See also loneliness of VW

  diary of VW: anti-Semitism in, 39, 50; on Clive Bell, 178; on Julian Bell, 177; on Vanessa Bell, 125, 130–131, 176; on Between the Acts, 187; on Brighton visit, 200; on Carrington, 162–164; on Cézanne, 134; depression as cyclical to mentions of father, 76, 110, 193–194; and desire, 21; on dissolving of rampart of literary support, 185, 186, 195; on George Duckworth, 106; on Stella Duckworth, 97, 100; edict forbidding children not mentioned in, 42; on T. S. Eliot, 165; extracts from diary published by LW, 66–67; on father, 110, 193; on fear of criticism, 158; on fear of mother-in-law as mother figure, 50; on Freshwater production, 164; and Freud, reading of, 183; on Roger Fry biography, 187–188; on David (Bunny) Garnett, 138; on Mark Gertler, 161; on great lake of melancholy, 192, 194; on growing old, 193; on happiness in London, 31; Hogarth Press notations about workload, 63; on Mary Hutchinson dream, 174; “I feel in my fingers the weight of every word,” 3, 109; on incest, enlightenment about, 91; introduction by Quentin Bell, 66; “I will go down with my colours flying,” 200, 204; on James Joyce, 167, 168; “Look your last on all things lovely,” 204; LW as reading, 173; on Katherine Mansfield, 174–175; on marriage, solitude in, 36, 148; on Monk’s House refuge during WWII, 185; on mother, relationship with, 71; on mother’s death, 96, 98; on observation, 200; on rejection of commission short story by Harper’s Bazaar, 195; retrieved from bombed-out London house, 186; on Vita Sackville-West, 173; on Adrian Stephen, 119–120; on Lytton Strachey, 17–18, 163; on suicide pact in WWII, 57–58; on The Years, 55; on thinking as political act, 191; on time, 33; on uncertainty, 1; writing of, 75–76; WWII and, 76, 181, 185–186, 188–189; on younger writers, and desire to relax, 193. See also A Passionate Apprentice: The Early Journals: 1897–1909 (Leaska, ed.)

  Dickinson, Violet: appreciation for VW, 114–115; characteristics of, 114; correspondence with VW, 12, 14, 38, 40, 47, 49, 81, 87, 91, 110, 112, 114, 115, 117, 118, 119, 122, 123, 126, 176; cradle for infant offered by, 40; crisis following death of father, recovery at home of, 113, 114, 115; end of relationship with VW, 176; lover relationship with VW, 115; religiosity of, 119; suicide attempt by VW at home of, 95, 114; travel with VW, 117

  the divine, effervescence of the moment as, 4

  Dostoyevsky, Fyodor, Crime and Punishment, 25

  Dreadnought farce, 121

  duck(s), as theme in VW’s life, 105–106

  Duckworth, George (half-brother): correspondence with VW, 103; country house lent for VW convalescence, 106, 146–147; death of, 106–107; and death of mother, 77, 98; and Stella Duckworth, 97, 101; incestuous climate created by, and Virginia and Vanessa Stephen, 102–108, 146–147, 183, 198; LW and, 106, 146–148; marriage of, 104; nicknames of (“Bar,” “Georgie”), 103; and Laura Stephen, 80, 107, 183; as supportive brother, attempts at, 80, 103–106, 107

  Duckworth, Gerald (half-brother): and death of mother, 77, 98; and Stella Duckworth, 96, 97, 99, 101; as editor of VW, 106, 150; incest of Virginia Stephen by, 102, 104, 107–108; and Laura Stephen, vulnerability of, 107–108; Venice trip organized by, 112

  Duckworth, Herbert (first husband of Julia Stephen): children of, 77; death of, 72–73; at death of Julia, VW as seeing image of, 75; as eternal prince charming, 75, 78, 104; Leslie Stephen on, 82, 104

  Duckworth, Stella (half-sister): and Vanessa Bell, 96–97, 99, 101–102; courtship and marriage to Jack Waller Hills, 84, 86, 93, 95–98, 100, 101–102; death of, 70, 86, 98–102, 108, 194; and death of mother, 75, 77; and incestuous climate created by Leslie Stephen, 83–86, 88–89, 91, 96; and mother, 73–74; nickname of (“Old Cow”), 74, 85, 99; physical characteristics of, 83; VW and, 85, 93, 96–97, 99, 100–102

  Edel, Leon, 196–197

  education: universities forbidden to women, 111; VW as volunteer educator for girls, 116

  Egoist (review), 167

  Eliot, T. S., 64, 165, 167, 168, 200; Poems, 165; The Waste Land, 165

  Eliot, Vivien (Vivienne), 165

  Empire, LW as colonialist in Ceylon, 7–9, 10–12, 13–14, 16–17, 18, 37

  Fascism: T. S. Eliot sympathies and, 165; VW condemning, 46. See also Hitler, Adolf, and Nazism

  feelings, lack of: Vanessa Bell and need for, 140; LW and need for, 39; in Mrs. Dalloway, 114; VW’s crisis following death of father and, 112

  feminism, VW and, 46, 180. See also women

  Fisher, Commander, 121

  Flaubert, Gustav, Madame Bovary, 6–7

  Forster, E. M., 7, 64, 66, 167

  fragility of VW: Quentin Bell’s biography and assumption of, 6; LW as dominant guardian to protect, 23, 25–26

  Freshwater, 164, 221n22; VW centenary performances (1982), 164–165

  Freud, Sigmund: death of, 183; effect on Bloomsbury, 182–183; evacuation from Austria, 181–182; Hogarth Press as publisher of, 64, 181–182; LW and, 182

  frigidity and VW: Quentin Bell biography and assumption of, 6, 19–20, 22; legend that LW’s sexuality was sacrificed to, 14, 19, 25–26; LW cultivating myth of, 14, 24, 25, 27; in The Waves, 26; whispered of, during her lifetime, 14. See also sexuality and VW

  Fry, Roger, 135, 160, 168; and Helen Anrep, 135; biography of, by VW, 186–188, 221n6; correspondence with VW, 20, 165, 171, 181; death of, 177; portrait hanging in Memoir Club, 66; relationship with Vanessa Bell, 129, 133–134, 139, 141, 177, 186–188; VW flirtation with, 187; wife of, as institutionalized, 187; work of, 134

  Garnett, Angelica (née Bell), 135–136, 164, 190; correspondence with Vanessa Bell, 66; marriage to Bunny Garnett, 137–138; parentage of, 129, 135, 136, 137,
164; on Vanessa’s attachment to Roger Fry, 177; VW and, 124; on VW/Clive Bell affair, 125

  Garnett, David (Bunny), 161; as conscientious objector, 137; correspondence with Duncan Grant, 138; correspondence with Lytton Strachey, 137; Lady Into Fox, 136; marriage to Angelica, 137–138; marriage to Rachel Marshall, 137; relationship with Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell, 136, 137–139, 140; Turgenev, 136

  genius: of Bloomsbury, as personal freedom, 160; of D. H. Lawrence, VW on, 171; of LW, for acquiring influence over VW, 22

  ——of VW: Vanessa Bell proclaiming, 130; defined by LW, 30, 157, 195; Violet Dickinson’s belief in, 114–115; as legendary motive for sacrifice of LW’s sexuality, 22; Madge Vaughn’s belief in, 122

  Gertler, Mark, 161

  Grant, Duncan, 66, 160, 162, 164, 166; as conscientious objector, 137; correspondence with Vanessa Bell, 138–139, 140, 176–177; correspondence with David (Bunny) Garnett, 138; correspondence with Adrian Stephen, 12, 15; correspondence with VW, 44, 138–139, 140, 176–177; death of, 164; and death of Lytton Strachey, 137, 162; and Dreadnought farce, 121; as father of Angelica Bell Garnett, 129, 135, 136, 137, 164; journal of, 138, 139, 140; as painter, 136; postwar costume ball, 66; relationship with Vanessa Bell, 125, 129, 134–140, 164, 176–177; relationship with George Bergen, 140; relationship with David (Bunny) Garnett, 136, 137–139, 140; relationship with Maynard Keynes, 10, 18, 37, 136, 161; relationship with Adrian Stephen, 10, 37, 121, 134, 136, 164; relationship with Lytton Strachey, 10, 18, 136, 161; rivalry of Maynard Keynes and Lytton Strachey over, 10, 18, 37, 161; and wedding of LW and VW, 44

  Greek language, 113

  Green, Henry, 64

  Guardian, 116

  happiness of VW: and London, 31; and solitude of marriage, 36–37

  Hardy, Thomas, 75

  Harper’s Bazaar, rejecting short story commissioned from VW, 195