Book Review. Virginia Woolfe by Hermione Lee

Lee, Hermionee. Virginia Woolf. (London : Chatto & Windus, 1996).

Hermione Lee, biographer, Virginia Woolf, did not get an opportunity to read Woolf in her Oxford English course. The faculty considered Woolf to be a “minor modernist,” not to be classed with Joyce and Eliot. Thankfully, Lee did not take the classification too seriously. From having an incurable “illness” that intermittently tormented her, both physically as well as emotionally, to impersonating Hitler in the midst of an orchestrated Nazi procession in Germany, Woolf’s (1882-1941) portrayal in the biography elicits myriad responses: amazement, appreciation, introspection, and even sympathy and tears. Lee accomplishes a remarkable feat through the biography by connecting Woolf’s “soul” with the “social and class pressures” she experienced, following Woolf’s advice on biography writing.

Virginia Woolf, an extremely difficult biography to write given that the subject never understood herself, and made suicide attempts many times in her life, nevertheless places Woolf alongside Joyce, if not higher. Unarguably, Woolf’s works itself, speak for her lofty literary caliber. In Virginia Woolf, Lee investigates reflections and vestiges of incidents, emotions and opinions that Woolf experienced, and locates them in characters and plots that Woolf constructed. As a result, the study of Woolf’s life as an integral part of her work becomes essential. For instance, Lee traces the similarity between Julia, Woolf’s mother’s passing away and that of Mrs Ramsay’s in To The Lighthouse. Lee structures the biography thematically and also chronologically. A part of Woolf’s life serves as the pivotal theme-point in each chapter, around which the rest of her life gets displayed. For instance, the chapter “Press,” centers on the joint initiative of the Woolfs and the foundation of the Hogart Press in 1917 but goes beyond publications and enterprise as Lee describes “And the story of the Press is, in a way, the story of their marriage…”

“Afraid of not being intelligent enough for her,” Lee engages in an effort to write as beautifully and intelligently as Woolf. A generous display of Woolf’s writings from novels, letters, diaries, presents a formidable challenge to Lee in this friendly competition, but she succeeds, maybe not effortlessly. Lee’s description of how the Woolfs decorated Monk’s House creates an indelible impression on the minds of the readers, while her assessment that “marriage and death were counter forces” in Woolf’s life reflects Lee’s sharp analytical prowess. If words of Woolf allow the readers to get a flavor of Woolf, first-hand, Lee’s notes, “new ink,” “new page,” and “left hand corner” leave the readers just short of holding the manuscript. The biography transports readers to Woolf’s world and there lies its greatest accomplishment.

This piece has been contributed by my sister, Parama Chaudhuri.