Over six hundred letters covering the first decade of the Woolfs' marriage; the publication of The Voyage Out, Night and Day, and Jacob's Room; the founding of The Hogarth Press; the years of World War I; Virginia's two periods of insanity and an attempted suicide.
In these 10 y VW is married to Leonard, the Hogarth Press gets going, they buy and inhabit Monk's House. Mostly same correspondents - most interesting are letters to Vanessa. Comments on James and Proust. Vita enters with the penultimate letter of Vol Two.
Very enjoyable, strangely in some ways more revealing than the diary - certainly throws fresh light on relationships with friends and acquaintances. This volume takes us as far as the publication of "Jacob's room" and being settled at Monk's House. There is almost nothing about the writing of her novels in the letters, apart from one long letter at the end of the volume. She could obviously compartmentalise her activities in her correspondence.
As usual with the letters of writers, a very interesting, plebian rendering, in words, of the privater personas of a someone we know almost exclusively through words. This edition, to me, had two themes of primary interest: Woolf's as yet unsure measure of her own talent and fame; and Woolf's as yet unsure measure of James Joyce's own talent and fame. The vortices of correspondence about Ulysses are fascinating, as is her narration of meeting and befriending TS Elliot. Her letters confirm my appraisal of her: a brilliant, neurotic, Edwardian writer desperately trying to be a modernist; mostly succeeding in her work, failing hard in her personal life.
Once again, cannot recommend this series of letters highly enough to the fan of Virginia Woolf. These are delightful to read and show Woolf's public persona quite clearly.