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Virginia Woolf: The Impact of Childhood Sexual Abuse on Her Life and Work
From Publishers Weekly
"Required reading for fans of Woolf, this superlative study traces the impact of early sexual abuse on her personality and her writing," reported PW , calling the work "a major step toward a reappraisal of Woolf's feminism." Photos.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
"Required reading for fans of Woolf, this superlative study traces the impact of early sexual abuse on her personality and her writing," reported PW , calling the work "a major step toward a reappraisal of Woolf's feminism." Photos.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
372 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1989
7 people are currently reading
338 people want to read
About the author
Louise DeSalvo
36 books74 followersLouise A. DeSalvo (born 1942) is an American writer, editor, professor, and lecturer who currently lives in New Jersey. Much of her work focuses on Italian-American culture, though she is also a renowned Virginia Woolf scholar.
DeSalvo and her husband raised their children in Teaneck, New Jersey before moving to Montclair to be closer to their grandchildren.
She also teaches memoir writing as a part of CUNY Hunter College's MFA Program in Creative Writing.
DeSalvo's publications include the memoir, Vertigo, which received the Gay Talese award and was also a finalist for Italy's Primo Acerbi prize for literature; Crazy in the Kitchen: Food, Feuds, and Forgiveness in an Italian American Family, which was named a Booksense Book of the Year for 2004.
DeSalvo is also a renowned Virginia Woolf scholar. She has edited editions of Woolf's first novel Melymbrosia, as well as The Letters of Vita Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf, which documents the controversial lesbian affair between these two novelists. In addition, she has written two books on Woolf, Virginia Woolf: The Impact of Childhood Sexual Abuse on Her Life and Work and Virginia Woolf's First Voyage: A Novel in the Making.
One of DeSalvo's most popular books is the writer's guide Writing as a Way of Healing: How Telling Our Stories Transforms Our Lives.
(from Wikipedia)
DeSalvo and her husband raised their children in Teaneck, New Jersey before moving to Montclair to be closer to their grandchildren.
She also teaches memoir writing as a part of CUNY Hunter College's MFA Program in Creative Writing.
DeSalvo's publications include the memoir, Vertigo, which received the Gay Talese award and was also a finalist for Italy's Primo Acerbi prize for literature; Crazy in the Kitchen: Food, Feuds, and Forgiveness in an Italian American Family, which was named a Booksense Book of the Year for 2004.
DeSalvo is also a renowned Virginia Woolf scholar. She has edited editions of Woolf's first novel Melymbrosia, as well as The Letters of Vita Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf, which documents the controversial lesbian affair between these two novelists. In addition, she has written two books on Woolf, Virginia Woolf: The Impact of Childhood Sexual Abuse on Her Life and Work and Virginia Woolf's First Voyage: A Novel in the Making.
One of DeSalvo's most popular books is the writer's guide Writing as a Way of Healing: How Telling Our Stories Transforms Our Lives.
(from Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
August 1, 2017
I was convinced by this biographical and literary study, of three things.
One, Virginia Woolf was sexually abused by her half-brother, George Duckworth.
Two, her alleged madness was a depressed and confused reaction to that childhood trauma (along with medications and social isolation). Her suicide was an understandable consequence of that trauma.
And three, I became convinced that much of Woolf’s fiction was driven by her attempts to come to terms with her trauma, in the absence of anyone to help her, since such matters could not be discussed in her times.
I was also appalled by the description of the Stephen/Woolf household, a patriarchal Victorian house of horror that severely oppressed girls, deprived them of education and tolerated their sexual abuse, but that was not new information. That kind of sociocultural analysis is widely available and that kind of home was not unusual.
Scholars and readers who object to DeSalvo’s conclusions (and methods, and thesis) generally argue that the evidence is not clear and that the argument is speculative. This gets down to what counts as evidence. Facts are, by definition, propositions that are generally accepted in a consensus community as true. They need no defense because they have already been agreed to. For example, if Woolf had written in her diary that she had been sexually abused by George Duckworth, then that would be a fact.
Actually, she did write that, so DeSalvo’s fundamental thesis is fact-based. Details, we do not have written in Woolf’s hand: how badly was she abused, in what exact ways, how many times, how roughly; what did they talk about, and so on. Details, details. We don’t have them.
DeSalvo draws forth many of those details by implication from Woolf’s diaries, letters, and fiction, and concludes that George and brother Gerald repeatedly abused both Virginia and her sister Vanessa. Critics object to such inferences, saying they are not factual. I found them completely plausible and believable.
Except to the most extreme positivist, facts do not have to be declarations written out in longhand. Since the time of John Locke it has been accepted that facts can also be inferred by reason from observational data, and I found DeSalvo’s reasoning to be conservative and convincing. For example, she compares accounts of contemporary female sexual abuse survivors to passages in Woolf’s diaries and fiction and shows startling similarities. In my way of thinking, that counts as evidence.
Having worked with sexually abused children, everything I read in DeSalvo’s thesis was consistent with my experience. Also the pictures were valuable, especially the one of Virginia standing next to George Duckworth – it is spine-shuddering for anyone who knows how to “read” pictures.
The one area where my skeptical hackles went up was when DeSalvo indulged in psychoanalytic interpretations of certain passages from Woolf. That really is flimsy speculation. However, even there, it is a fact that Woolf read Freud (as part of her quest for self-healing, DeSalvo says), so a psychoanalytic commentary is not totally inappropriate.
A peeve I cannot resist mentioning is that there is no consideration of Woolf’s novel, Orlando, though it does appear in the index, but is utterly missing from the text. That would be some editor’s error. Other Woolf novels are analyzed in considerable detail to support the author’s thesis.
Overall, this book gave me plenty of fresh insight into Virginia Woolf and her works and I found it valuable, well-written, accessible, and completely believable.
One, Virginia Woolf was sexually abused by her half-brother, George Duckworth.
Two, her alleged madness was a depressed and confused reaction to that childhood trauma (along with medications and social isolation). Her suicide was an understandable consequence of that trauma.
And three, I became convinced that much of Woolf’s fiction was driven by her attempts to come to terms with her trauma, in the absence of anyone to help her, since such matters could not be discussed in her times.
I was also appalled by the description of the Stephen/Woolf household, a patriarchal Victorian house of horror that severely oppressed girls, deprived them of education and tolerated their sexual abuse, but that was not new information. That kind of sociocultural analysis is widely available and that kind of home was not unusual.
Scholars and readers who object to DeSalvo’s conclusions (and methods, and thesis) generally argue that the evidence is not clear and that the argument is speculative. This gets down to what counts as evidence. Facts are, by definition, propositions that are generally accepted in a consensus community as true. They need no defense because they have already been agreed to. For example, if Woolf had written in her diary that she had been sexually abused by George Duckworth, then that would be a fact.
Actually, she did write that, so DeSalvo’s fundamental thesis is fact-based. Details, we do not have written in Woolf’s hand: how badly was she abused, in what exact ways, how many times, how roughly; what did they talk about, and so on. Details, details. We don’t have them.
DeSalvo draws forth many of those details by implication from Woolf’s diaries, letters, and fiction, and concludes that George and brother Gerald repeatedly abused both Virginia and her sister Vanessa. Critics object to such inferences, saying they are not factual. I found them completely plausible and believable.
Except to the most extreme positivist, facts do not have to be declarations written out in longhand. Since the time of John Locke it has been accepted that facts can also be inferred by reason from observational data, and I found DeSalvo’s reasoning to be conservative and convincing. For example, she compares accounts of contemporary female sexual abuse survivors to passages in Woolf’s diaries and fiction and shows startling similarities. In my way of thinking, that counts as evidence.
Having worked with sexually abused children, everything I read in DeSalvo’s thesis was consistent with my experience. Also the pictures were valuable, especially the one of Virginia standing next to George Duckworth – it is spine-shuddering for anyone who knows how to “read” pictures.
The one area where my skeptical hackles went up was when DeSalvo indulged in psychoanalytic interpretations of certain passages from Woolf. That really is flimsy speculation. However, even there, it is a fact that Woolf read Freud (as part of her quest for self-healing, DeSalvo says), so a psychoanalytic commentary is not totally inappropriate.
A peeve I cannot resist mentioning is that there is no consideration of Woolf’s novel, Orlando, though it does appear in the index, but is utterly missing from the text. That would be some editor’s error. Other Woolf novels are analyzed in considerable detail to support the author’s thesis.
Overall, this book gave me plenty of fresh insight into Virginia Woolf and her works and I found it valuable, well-written, accessible, and completely believable.
February 3, 2015
So I pulled this from the library last week and couldn't put it down. I have been fascinated with authors like Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton for some time now. As a therapist, and a recovering trauma survivor, I am in search of answers as to the divine mystery of why some of us survive and others surrender the fight; whether these women had a way through their creative work to keep them stable for a time, channeling rage and other emotions into their art, or whether they would have chosen their art were it not for the trauma? And other such reflections and explorations that I have for myself that are too personal for a review, but meaningful to my work with clients. This book encases a solid thesis argument for Woolf's being victimized by family members at an early age and repeatedly thereafter. The book takes into consideration the mores and attitudes of the times, Victorian age beliefs concerning the upbringing of children and especially female children. The description of Virginia's half-sibling Laura, who was considered "difficult" and hard to handle eventually being sent away to an institution for the rest of her short life, is heart-breaking and horrifying. DeSalvo also correlates the picture painted of Virginia by former biographers including her nephew, Quentin Bell, as over-reacting and making serious of innocuous behavior, between what Virginia writes in her early writings as an adolescent and her later writings, including her diaries, to provide a corrosive view of how little consideration was given to Virginia's repeated breakdowns and need for solitude and respite to what everyone agreed was her "madness." It is interesting to read this book today given its publication date over thirty years ago and how, even though much time has passed and research done and therapeutic gains made, we, as a society, still are reticent and openly hostile to any suggestions or accusations made of incest or sexual childhood or adult abuse towards women and, regrettably, children.
February 6, 2009
Ground-breaking and insightful, this book truly gave me a whole new way of reading Virginia Woolf's work, which I already loved. DeSalvo writes in a highly readable style, so that the impact of the material, so obviously thoroughly and painstakingly researched and analyzed, was not lost in a sea of scholarly jargon. DeSalvo's evidence for the incest and sexual abuse is too obvious to dismiss, and it explains so much about Woolf's "idiosyncracies" and about the topics of her fiction. That Woolf not only wrote but ushered in a truly "modern fiction" movement (as she so clearly explained in her essay "Modern Fiction") is a testament to her incredible strength of spirit in spite of the trauma she experienced. This was the first literary biography that I read that shattered the old stereotypes and myths I had been led to believe - that Woolf suffered from madness, that she was a gifted but troubled genius. After reading this biography, I went back to re-read all my Woolf favorites (Mrs. Dalloway, Orlando, The Waves, The Voyage Out) - they became different books.
When I teach Woolf in my Literature by Women course, I make this required reading.
When I teach Woolf in my Literature by Women course, I make this required reading.
July 27, 2014
This book is amazing for the simple fact that it presents a radical reinterpretation of the life and work of Virginia Woolf. The book is impeccably researched and the author supports her arguments with extensive references to and quotations from all manner of Mrs. Woolf's work. I am by no means a Woolf scholar, but I imagine that for those who are, Louise DeSalvo's book would be very difficult to refute; the scholarship is that good.
What emerges from the book is something akin to Mrs. Woolf's famous analogy of the chrysalis. She appears anew here, no longer only the pathetic, broken being so many other books present; here she may still, for perhaps different reasons, be considered pathetic, and most certainly broken, but DeSalvo gives us a Mrs. Woolf who is so very much braver, courageous, intellectually sound, than she has previously been shown to be. Her importance to literature is reinforced; however, her writings are also shown to be important contributions to an understanding of the history, psychology, and sociology of her time.
I had a deep and abiding regard for and admiration of Mrs. Woolf before reading this excellent book. After reading it, that regard and admiration has deepened considerably.
What emerges from the book is something akin to Mrs. Woolf's famous analogy of the chrysalis. She appears anew here, no longer only the pathetic, broken being so many other books present; here she may still, for perhaps different reasons, be considered pathetic, and most certainly broken, but DeSalvo gives us a Mrs. Woolf who is so very much braver, courageous, intellectually sound, than she has previously been shown to be. Her importance to literature is reinforced; however, her writings are also shown to be important contributions to an understanding of the history, psychology, and sociology of her time.
I had a deep and abiding regard for and admiration of Mrs. Woolf before reading this excellent book. After reading it, that regard and admiration has deepened considerably.
June 10, 2021
Certainly a different slant on Virginia Woolf! I enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone who is interested in the consequences of sexual abuse in childhood and who knows Woolf's work reasonably well (as the book goes into quite some detail). It may strike some readers as one-sided (I got it second-hand and found the word 'ridiculous' in the margin several times!) but I think it is a brilliant mixture of biography and literary analysis. Towards the end it moves away from abuse to the plight of women in Woolf's day, which is also interesting.
September 6, 2015
I have been in awe of Virginia Woolf and her writing for years. Reading Louise DeSalvo's book brought my awe into clearer perspective, i.e. realizing how strong and powerful a writer Woolf was and that her preoccupations are related to mine as a writer. She wrote about women's experience, especially during childhood and adolescence, and how women have been treated by men (and still are by many men), and their powerlessness. As I read, I thought of my father who had been raised in a patriarchal nuclear family and espoused much of the Victorian attitudes and beliefs DeSalvo (and Woolf) describes regarding male superiority and female inferiority. So Woolf's experience was all too familiar to me.
If you only know that Virginia Woolf was a Bloomsbury writer who committed suicide, then you'll be in for an interesting, shocking read with DeSalvo's book. She does an excellent job, however, of showing how Woolf's personal experience emerges in her writing, and just how loudly she spoke out about sexual and physical violence against women, and child neglect by both mothers and fathers in upper middle class Victorian families. As continues to be true today still, the perpetrators dismissed Woolf's claims, pointing to her "illness" and saying that she was "mad." It was convenient for the men in Woolf's life that she exhibited all the symptoms commonly seen in young women who have been sexually abused -- they could point to them and say Woolf was insane, that it was all in her head, and insure that they'd be blameless.
Today, those symptoms of Woolf's would probably be diagnosed as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder with Depression, acknowledging the psychological trauma of the sexual abuse she endured. We have made some progress, I guess. Woolf believed, and DeSalvo affirms, that her writing was not only a way to cope with what she'd endured but also a path to psychological healing, to learning who she truly was, and her true self worth. She still suffered from painful and powerful self-doubt, however, periods of depression, and severe, incapacitating headaches.
I think this book is an extremely important one for gender studies, and especially for men to read to learn about what they should not do. I'm not convinced, however, that men have made much progress in America or abroad from what Woolf and DeSalvo describe during Woolf's lifetime. Men still want to control women, to dominate them, to subjugate them, and to blame them for all their problems, at least in my experience. Fortunately, I have become acquainted with some men who have matured psychologically and emotionally beyond what is seen in this book. There are too few of them, however.
Because DeSalvo does such an excellent job of connecting Woolf's life experiences with what she wrote, her book has made me want to read all of what Woolf wrote and return and re-read what I've already read. It will certainly be interesting on an additional level now, knowing more about Woolf's life experience and how it became the inspiration and basis for her work. I am really glad that I invested in all of Woolf's Diaries and Letters years ago, and some of her novels, essays, and short stories.
I highly, highly recommend this book to readers of Woolf, literary fiction, those interested in Victorian life and Bloomsbury, and readers interested in the creative process. It will be eye-opening for some, but I think readers also interested in feminism, women's liberation, and men's liberation would also find this book especially interesting. Woolf was a strong advocate for education for women to enable them to be free of male domination, and for a change in teaching both boys and girls in order to stop war, fascism, and nationalism. She was definitely ahead of her time.
If you only know that Virginia Woolf was a Bloomsbury writer who committed suicide, then you'll be in for an interesting, shocking read with DeSalvo's book. She does an excellent job, however, of showing how Woolf's personal experience emerges in her writing, and just how loudly she spoke out about sexual and physical violence against women, and child neglect by both mothers and fathers in upper middle class Victorian families. As continues to be true today still, the perpetrators dismissed Woolf's claims, pointing to her "illness" and saying that she was "mad." It was convenient for the men in Woolf's life that she exhibited all the symptoms commonly seen in young women who have been sexually abused -- they could point to them and say Woolf was insane, that it was all in her head, and insure that they'd be blameless.
Today, those symptoms of Woolf's would probably be diagnosed as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder with Depression, acknowledging the psychological trauma of the sexual abuse she endured. We have made some progress, I guess. Woolf believed, and DeSalvo affirms, that her writing was not only a way to cope with what she'd endured but also a path to psychological healing, to learning who she truly was, and her true self worth. She still suffered from painful and powerful self-doubt, however, periods of depression, and severe, incapacitating headaches.
I think this book is an extremely important one for gender studies, and especially for men to read to learn about what they should not do. I'm not convinced, however, that men have made much progress in America or abroad from what Woolf and DeSalvo describe during Woolf's lifetime. Men still want to control women, to dominate them, to subjugate them, and to blame them for all their problems, at least in my experience. Fortunately, I have become acquainted with some men who have matured psychologically and emotionally beyond what is seen in this book. There are too few of them, however.
Because DeSalvo does such an excellent job of connecting Woolf's life experiences with what she wrote, her book has made me want to read all of what Woolf wrote and return and re-read what I've already read. It will certainly be interesting on an additional level now, knowing more about Woolf's life experience and how it became the inspiration and basis for her work. I am really glad that I invested in all of Woolf's Diaries and Letters years ago, and some of her novels, essays, and short stories.
I highly, highly recommend this book to readers of Woolf, literary fiction, those interested in Victorian life and Bloomsbury, and readers interested in the creative process. It will be eye-opening for some, but I think readers also interested in feminism, women's liberation, and men's liberation would also find this book especially interesting. Woolf was a strong advocate for education for women to enable them to be free of male domination, and for a change in teaching both boys and girls in order to stop war, fascism, and nationalism. She was definitely ahead of her time.
September 11, 2016
I've emerged from reading this book full of admiration for Viginia Woolf as a woman ahead of her time not only as a writer but also in exploring and denouncing the exploitation and abuse of children. A sensitive account in Louise Desalvo's capable hands.
February 21, 2022
I really enjoyed this actually. I would (and did) read this after you have read her once but before you have read her twice
December 21, 2021
Let's start with the good things.
There is a spectrum of opinions regarding the topic of sexual abuse in VW's life, and DeSalvo writes (very powerfully, with close attention to VW's literature) a very astute defence of Woolf. She argues that Woolf was sexually abused by her half-brother and that this sexual abuse was not unusual in middle-class English families of the period, and that it speaks of the general mistreatment of daughters. As such, Woolf revisits her trauma in her literature and she has a specific soft spot for the lives of children in her literature, especially vulnerable children. And she also argues that Woolf's mental illness was a rational response to abuse and other traumatic events in her life (like the deaths in her family) and that to do justice to Woolf we must keep that trauma in mind when reading her literature.
Literary criticism is embedded throughout her argument as DeSalvo cited from many works of literature by Woolf, including her autobiographical accounts, speeches and her works of non-fiction (and of course her fiction). She does find evidence for this topic, so it's not like this topic is unfounded. She also paid close attention to significant events throughout Woolf's life, and there is a clear timeline. However, most attention is on Woolf's childhood and adolescence.
I also commend DeSalvo for offering a different view of Woolf's family. The Stephen household is often portrayed as a warm, loving bubble for Woolf that was only shattered by the deaths in her family. However, there is also plenty of evidence on the harmful parenting of Leslie and Julia Stephen, the neglect of her older sister Laura (branded as "retarded" and locked away her entire life), the permission of abuse towards Stella Duckworth (and overwork that led to her death), and Vanessa Stephen was also molested. In fact, she's the one who told the family doctor about it. I just think any overtly positive account of her family is unrealistic, especially when one discusses Three Guineas, which scrutinises patriarchy and the tyranny of fathers.
There are instances of critics ignoring the abuse or even blaming Woolf for it (like her nephew - especially harmful considering he and his wife are the ones who published Woolf's diaries, let's not even get into the problematic issue of making a living from your dead aunt's life and writing). Especially in a post #MeToo movement (or maybe we're not yet past it, but anyway), it's very poignant to read this account and to assert the presence of sexual trauma in Woolf's literature.
However, I would urge the casual reader who has no formal literary training to be careful. I'm not saying that the presence of sexual trauma or fear is non-existent, but at the same time Woolf did not write autofiction. Strong topics within her literature are attached to her personal experiences, as is the case for pretty much every writer, but not everything is autobiographical. DeSalvo offers just once way of reading Woolf's literature, and more generally there is a reason that literary criticism keeps a gap between the author and their work. Duh, that fiction came from somewhere didn't it? So obviously we need to keep the author in mind, but I think it's redundant to overemphasise this one topic and even worse to apply it to everything Woolf ever wrote.
The book is by no means bad, it's actually very well written and argued. It's just that I want people to be mindful about getting too carried away with the argument and generalising it to everything Woolf produced. I think the anger one feels when reading this is a testament to DeSalvo's excellent use of rhetoric and her ability to argue well and with evidence. This is actually a great book for anyone who wants to improve the way they argue, especially with literature. But just be mindful about what you do with this argument after you're done with it.
I really enjoyed reading it. My dissertation has a subtopic on sexual fear and this book inspired me. It's not likely that I'll cite this book because I'm not sure I want to attach the topic to Woolf's personal life, but it did inspire me nonetheless. And I'm grateful I got to read another interpretation of the Stephen family.
There is a spectrum of opinions regarding the topic of sexual abuse in VW's life, and DeSalvo writes (very powerfully, with close attention to VW's literature) a very astute defence of Woolf. She argues that Woolf was sexually abused by her half-brother and that this sexual abuse was not unusual in middle-class English families of the period, and that it speaks of the general mistreatment of daughters. As such, Woolf revisits her trauma in her literature and she has a specific soft spot for the lives of children in her literature, especially vulnerable children. And she also argues that Woolf's mental illness was a rational response to abuse and other traumatic events in her life (like the deaths in her family) and that to do justice to Woolf we must keep that trauma in mind when reading her literature.
Literary criticism is embedded throughout her argument as DeSalvo cited from many works of literature by Woolf, including her autobiographical accounts, speeches and her works of non-fiction (and of course her fiction). She does find evidence for this topic, so it's not like this topic is unfounded. She also paid close attention to significant events throughout Woolf's life, and there is a clear timeline. However, most attention is on Woolf's childhood and adolescence.
I also commend DeSalvo for offering a different view of Woolf's family. The Stephen household is often portrayed as a warm, loving bubble for Woolf that was only shattered by the deaths in her family. However, there is also plenty of evidence on the harmful parenting of Leslie and Julia Stephen, the neglect of her older sister Laura (branded as "retarded" and locked away her entire life), the permission of abuse towards Stella Duckworth (and overwork that led to her death), and Vanessa Stephen was also molested. In fact, she's the one who told the family doctor about it. I just think any overtly positive account of her family is unrealistic, especially when one discusses Three Guineas, which scrutinises patriarchy and the tyranny of fathers.
There are instances of critics ignoring the abuse or even blaming Woolf for it (like her nephew - especially harmful considering he and his wife are the ones who published Woolf's diaries, let's not even get into the problematic issue of making a living from your dead aunt's life and writing). Especially in a post #MeToo movement (or maybe we're not yet past it, but anyway), it's very poignant to read this account and to assert the presence of sexual trauma in Woolf's literature.
However, I would urge the casual reader who has no formal literary training to be careful. I'm not saying that the presence of sexual trauma or fear is non-existent, but at the same time Woolf did not write autofiction. Strong topics within her literature are attached to her personal experiences, as is the case for pretty much every writer, but not everything is autobiographical. DeSalvo offers just once way of reading Woolf's literature, and more generally there is a reason that literary criticism keeps a gap between the author and their work. Duh, that fiction came from somewhere didn't it? So obviously we need to keep the author in mind, but I think it's redundant to overemphasise this one topic and even worse to apply it to everything Woolf ever wrote.
The book is by no means bad, it's actually very well written and argued. It's just that I want people to be mindful about getting too carried away with the argument and generalising it to everything Woolf produced. I think the anger one feels when reading this is a testament to DeSalvo's excellent use of rhetoric and her ability to argue well and with evidence. This is actually a great book for anyone who wants to improve the way they argue, especially with literature. But just be mindful about what you do with this argument after you're done with it.
I really enjoyed reading it. My dissertation has a subtopic on sexual fear and this book inspired me. It's not likely that I'll cite this book because I'm not sure I want to attach the topic to Woolf's personal life, but it did inspire me nonetheless. And I'm grateful I got to read another interpretation of the Stephen family.
March 5, 2016
This is a book that is difficult to review. Ground-breaking, scholarly, but not dry, it also disturbing. I imagine it could be a traumatic read for victims of rape or incest.
In this study, DeSalvo examines the role that sexual abuse at the hands of numerous men in their family (including both their brother-in-law and half-brother) played in the lives of Virginia Woolf and her sisters. She discusses the different ways in which the sisters coped and learned to live with the abuse, which DeSalvo argues was at the root of Woolf's lifelong depression. Also discussed is the influence that the abuse had on Woolf's art and her romantic relationships.
This is an important study not only of Virginia Woolf's early life and family, but of the effects of childhood sexual abuse, and the attitudes toward sexual abuse in the 19th Century. Not a light-hearted read, but very informative.
In this study, DeSalvo examines the role that sexual abuse at the hands of numerous men in their family (including both their brother-in-law and half-brother) played in the lives of Virginia Woolf and her sisters. She discusses the different ways in which the sisters coped and learned to live with the abuse, which DeSalvo argues was at the root of Woolf's lifelong depression. Also discussed is the influence that the abuse had on Woolf's art and her romantic relationships.
This is an important study not only of Virginia Woolf's early life and family, but of the effects of childhood sexual abuse, and the attitudes toward sexual abuse in the 19th Century. Not a light-hearted read, but very informative.
April 13, 2021
Several years ago I received this book from a friend who knew I wanted to learn more about the life of Virginia Woolf. Nothing could have prepared me for this disturbing insight of the abuse suffered by children during the 19th century Victorian period. The information shared in this book goes deep into what it means to be apart of a Dysfunctional family. There is a collection of pictures that accompany this tale of neglect, abuse and incest. In the eyes of each family member t there is the absence of life, joy, happiness and family bonding. The misery experienced by Virginia and her siblings is clearly a result of being born into a society that placed no importance on the safety, mental, and emotional well being of children who are viewed as nuisance.
July 4, 2007
more insights into my favorite author.
June 24, 2012
This is a challenging book indeed. I wanted to argue with some of the conclusions, but the author is quite persuasive. Anyone interested in the life and work of Woolf should really read this one.
November 12, 2017
No, the tone isn't "overly shrill and stridently feminist", as someone wrote in their review. You may call DeSalvo's approach "radical" - in my opinion it's just appropriately feminist.
But yes, the title is misleading, as someone else said. The book deals with the (Victorian) patriarchal family and how it - and society on the whole - promotes abuse of any kind.
Brilliant.
But yes, the title is misleading, as someone else said. The book deals with the (Victorian) patriarchal family and how it - and society on the whole - promotes abuse of any kind.
Brilliant.
April 4, 2025
One of the most brutal books I’ve ever read. Seems like every few paragraphs something unspeakably terrible happened to the members of this (real) family. Was unable to finish before it was due back to the library. After reading this you can begin to understand why survivors like Virginia often “go out” the same way she did, if you didn’t understand why already.
September 19, 2024
Freud can go fuck himself. I know the prevailing, romanticized notion of Virginia Woolf’s life is mostly 'rich british white lady, inherently crazy, wrote some cool shit, unalived self'. The real story is so much more tragic and while I knew this about her I was not prepared to cry for my own inner child as much as for her. I love this book for being bold enough to say things other biographies written her life have not, and for calling out the others for glossing over her evidentially tragic childhood.
On a personal note, I do my best to decolonize my bookshelf, and I think her story and the impact her work has had transcends race and class. Maybe I am biased because I find her life so painfully relatable; she has yet to give me a reason to be sorry for this.
On a personal note, I do my best to decolonize my bookshelf, and I think her story and the impact her work has had transcends race and class. Maybe I am biased because I find her life so painfully relatable; she has yet to give me a reason to be sorry for this.
September 23, 2012
Some really great information about Virginia Woolf and the impact of sexual abuse, but DeSalvo does leap to conclusions from time to time and acts like she knows every little detail about the inner workings of Woolf's mind. Some causal relationships are definitely there, and those are explored very carefully and tactfully. I didn't care for the analyses of Woolf's books. As a writer, not all of the characters I create are part of my experience, nor are they all created based on people in my life. Some are REALLY purely made up, or based on stories I've heard about others. DeSalvo acts like each character that Woolf creates MUST be based on someone in Woolf's own life, or else based on her own personal experiences. This is where the assumptions are most troublesome.
September 7, 2016
I first read this book soon after its publication, and I remember being completely enthralled. Later, once I started university, I re-read it and was less impressed. This re-reading has only diminished my opinion further. Too much speculation about how Virginia Woolf "must have" experienced things and a very specific way of interpreting evidence. Add to that DeSalvo's repeated claim that J.K. Stephen's pursuit of Stella Duckworth occurred at "precisely the time" of the Ripper murders, when in fact it did not (how did that get past elementary fact checking?), and this book is little more than an interesting but unconvincing souffle.
March 7, 2014
Because this work focuses on such an important topic-- and because it exposes the specific perpetrators of sexual abuse in the case of Virginia Woolf-- I have to give it four stars. The writing, however, often seems redundant, circular, and overly reliant on jargon and conjecture. Which is why I cannot give five stars to this work. It was more an important than well-presented study in my opinion.
February 4, 2008
This book is a detailed investigation into the life of Virginia Woolf and the affect sexual abuse had on her. It quotes her early and later writing and it is exhaustive. She found so much that pointed to a pattern of abuse that went on for at least two generations and it's a sad story. It's also a story about how Woolf survived and what she achieved. Extremely readable and interesting
January 7, 2016
Despite being overly shrill and stridently feminist in tone, this critical biography of Virginia Woolf remains an important work. If nothing else, it is an essential corrective for the (to me) infuriatingly dismissive commentary by (mostly male academic-type) Woolf 'experts' about Woolf's childhood sexual abuse by her half brothers.
January 15, 2017
I agree with other reviewers on this. It was very interesting and there is certainly compelling evidence for the general conclusion, but the book itself was full of too much speculation. It also left gaping holes in her personal life post-adolescence. I felt like there was more research to be done.
May 21, 2010
The subtitle of this book is misleading. It goes beyond the impact of sexual abuse on the life of Virginia Woolf and manages to open a door into the reality of being raised in the context of the late victorian institution of family.
Currently reading
December 15, 2010This looks to be good. Just read the preface so far and then spent some time finding out what I could about Louise De Salvo. She is quite impressive, and I absolutely admire Virginia Woolf. I plan on taking my time with this one!
September 21, 2011
Sad, yet well-written. Poignant; a page-turner. Even though I knew how Virginia's story went & ended, I still didn't want to put the book down--I wanted to keep reading and see what happened! Also: great pics of Virginia as a child/her family.
July 8, 2013
Deeply disturbing detailed biography of the bizarre childhood of Virginia Woolf. Very controversial but researched so thoroughly, I believe these horrors weren't her imaginings. Hard to read due to the subject matter and how her family condoned it.
August 27, 2012
This book reads like a plate of overcooked greens.
April 15, 2017
Gosh, it took me months to read this, sometimes because it was too intense and painful. Other times, it was too academic for the moment. At any rate, it's a wonderful book. Highly recommended. Now, time to re-read some Virginia Woolf.
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