Virginia Woolf

Virginia Wolff’s curriculum vitae
Virginia Woolf (1882– 1941) was an English novelist and essayist who was regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the 20th century.
Virginia Woolf was the daughter of the author Leslie Stephen and his second wife Julia Jackson (widowed Duckworth, born Jackson). Virginia Woolf had altogether seven siblings, among them two brothers (George und Gerald Duckworth) and one sister (Stella Duckworth) from her mother’s first marriage.

Her mental health was impaired. Caused by her mother’s sudden death in 1895 and that of her half sister Stella two years later, Virginia Woolf suffered from several nervous breakdowns. Her father’s death in 1904 induced her most alarming collapse and she was briefly institutionalised.

Her breakdowns and subsequent recurring depressive periods, modern scholars have claimed, were also caused by her sexual abuse committed by their half-brothers George and Gerald
Woolf married the writer Leonard Woolf in 1912. Judging by her last written words, before she committed suicide it must have been a very sensitive and happy partnership.

During the post war 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 " A Room of One's Own"(1929) with its famous quote, "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction".