Virginia Woolf, the War Without, the War Within - by Barbara Lounsberry (Paperback)

About the Book

In her third and final volume on Virginia Woolf's diaries, Barbara Lounsberry reveals new insights about the courageous last years of the modernist writer's life, from 1929 until Woolf's suicide in 1941. Woolf turned more to her diary--and to the diaries of others--for support in these years as she engaged in inner artistic wars, including the struggle with her most difficult work, The Waves, and as the threat of fascism in the world outside culminated in World War II.

Book Synopsis

In her third and final volume on Virginia Woolf's diaries, Barbara Lounsberry reveals new insights about the courageous last years of the modernist writer's life, from 1929 until Woolf's suicide in 1941. Woolf turned more to her diary--and to the diaries of others--for support in these years as she engaged in inner artistic wars, including the struggle with her most difficult work, The Waves, and as the threat of fascism in the world outside culminated in World War II.

Review Quotes

"Barbara Lounsberry has done for Woolf's diaries what the diaries once did for Woolf's novels, and what all great literary criticism seeks to do: It takes a canonical work of literature and offers an entirely new way of seeing it."--New Republic "Lounsberry uses these [diaries] to demonstrate that as fascism flourished and dear friends died, diaries--as a lifeline and a path forward--became integral to both Woolf's doing and her undoing. . . . Essential."--Choice "In her comprehensive, close readings of Woolf's entire diary, Lounsberry significantly advances scholarship on Woolf's most sustained literary endeavor. . . . Lounsberry enhances our understanding of the diary as a genre informed by its own traditions, aesthetics, and intertextual networks throughout history. She also showcases how Woolf's diary is itself a work of art."--Review of English Studies "Lounsberry's patient, perceptive study . . . offer[s] an education in diary reading and diary history, while providing a sure-handed guide to what may be Woolf's most daunting work."--Life Writing