Paper Darts: The Letters of Virginia Woolf

by Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf often wrote as many as six letters a day. This collection is illustrated with contemporary photographs and paintings - many of them by members of the Bloomsbury Group, such as Woolf's sister Vanessa Bell, Roger Fry and Duncan Grant - and aims to evoke the literary and artistic life of the day. The letters - at times witty and irreverent, at times melancholy and introspective - are possibly even more revealing for their insights into the complex personality of the novelist herself. "A true letter", she insisted, "should be like a film of wax pressed close to the graving of the mind". The book contains biographical notes on the main recipients of the letters, together with background information on Virginia Woolf's life and work. Frances Spalding's previous books include "British Art Since 1900" and biographies of the painters Roger Fry and Vanessa Bell.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Biography

160 pages, Paperback

First published March 25, 1991

About the author

(Adeline) Virginia Woolf was an English novelist and essayist regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century.

During the interwar period, Woolf was a significant figure in London literary society and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Her most famous works include the novels Mrs. Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), and Orlando (1928), and the book-length essay A Room of One's Own (1929) with its famous dictum, "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."

Reviews

[C. · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a curious, ugly little book this is! It was published in 1992, but it seems to have taken its inspiration from 1970s Australian architecture (hint: mission brown). Every page is encircled by a monumentally ugly border in grey, crowned with a bizarre flourish at the top of the page. Everything is in shades of brown - muted blue or green for the sky and grass, perhaps.

I do love Virginia Woolf, but I often wonder if it's more on principle than on my actual reactions to her writing. I do find her very difficult to get in to, and I have to be in the right mood, and it always takes a while. Most of the time when I'm reading her I am conscious of the fact that I am not getting nearly as much out of it as I could.

I had the same experience with this selection of letters. A lot of the earlier ones seemed pretty boring, but then it hit the Bloomsbury period and bam! So much brilliance. So I'm not sure if this corresponds to my own attention span or an actual material change in the quality or subject matter of her letter writing.

Honestly, I suspect she was a snob. But oh, such beauty! Such talent! If I have time I would like to add some quotes to this review later.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book, a blend of correspondence, biography, photographs, and paintings, is quite extraordinary. Somehow, it brings to life, Bloomsbury group, their personalities, their relationships, and their lifestyles, more clearly than anything I have read about them. It is profoundly moving.

[Just Jenny · Rating 1 out of 5]

Going to continue reading this for the letters, but already disgusted with Frances Spalding for writing off Woolf's half brothers who sexually assaulted her for years. Some choice quotes from page 16 include describing the brothers as having "well meaning...confused feelings" that led to "fondlings and fumblings" and on "at least one occasion became sexual in intent." For fucks sake the two were 12 and 14 years older. Virginia herself wrote about the abuse in detail. I can't fathom what Frances Spalding was thinking. It's hard to believe someone who collected so much data on Woolf could have missed the evidence. Or was Spalding's softened interpretation just a product of the times (only 1991)??? Anyway....continuing with the book despite it all, just a bit warily now. If anyone decides to revive this collection in the future I hope they seriously consider revamping the supporting text.

[Karen-Leigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Virginia Woolf often wrote as many as six letters a day. This collection is illustrated with contemporary photographs and paintings - many of them by members of the Bloomsbury Group, such as Woolf's sister Vanessa Bell, Roger Fry and Duncan Grant - and aims to evoke the literary and artistic life of the day. The letters - at times witty and irreverent, at times melancholy and introspective - are possibly even more revealing for their insights into the complex personality of the novelist herself. "A true letter", she insisted, "should be like a film of wax pressed close to the graving of the mind". The book contains biographical notes on the main recipients of the letters, together with background information on Virginia Woolf's life and work. Frances Spalding's previous books include "British Art Since 1900" and biographies of the painters Roger Fry and Vanessa Bell.

[Persephone Abbott · Rating 4 out of 5]

What does one write in letters? Love and business, I suppose. Followed by gossip and entertainment. It's here in this book, and passes the time of days....I am not sure it's so very interesting because V.W's total grasp on matters encompassed by one world is revealed in her novels. However, if you must know the unknown, the dangling, the unanswered, letters it is.