Virginia Woolf - Delphi Complete Works of Virginia Woolf

The Complete Works of

VIRGINIA WOOLF

(1882-1941)

Contents

Delphi Classics 2014

Version 8

The Complete Works of

VIRGINIA WOOLF

By Delphi Classics, 2014

Complete Works of Virginia Woolf

First published in the United Kingdom in 2014 by Delphi Classics.

Delphi Classics, 2014.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published.

Delphi Classics

is an imprint of

Delphi Publishing Ltd

Hastings, East Sussex

United Kingdom

Contact: sales@delphiclassics.com

www.delphiclassics.com

Parts Edition Now Available!

Love reading Virginia Woolf ?

Did you know you can now purchase the Delphi Classics Parts Edition of this author and enjoy all the novels, plays, non-fiction books and other works as individual eBooks? Now, you can select and read individual novels etc. and know precisely where you are in an eBook. You will also be able to manage space better on your eReading devices.

The Parts Edition is only available direct from the Delphi Classics website.

For more information about this exciting new format and to try free Parts Edition downloads , please visit this link .

Explore Modernist literature with Delphi Classics

For the first time in publishing history, Delphi Classics is proud to offer the complete works of these modernist masters.

www.delphiclassics.com

Woolfs birthplace 22 Hyde Park Gate, Kensington, London

Virginia Woolfs father, Leslie Stephen (1832-1904) was an author, critic and mountaineer.

Woolfs mother, Julia Prinsep Duckworth (ne Jackson) (18461895) was a renowned beauty, born in British India to Dr. John and Maria Pattle Jackson. She was also the niece of the photographer Julia Margaret Cameron and first cousin of the temperance leader Lady Henry Somerset. Julia moved to England with her mother, where she served as a model for Pre-Raphaelite painters such as Edward Burne-Jones.

Julia Stephen with her daughter Virginia

Woolf with her father in 1902

First published in England in 1915 by Duckworth and in the USA in 1920 by Doran, The Voyage Out was Woolfs debut novel. She had begun to compose the novel as early as 1910, completing an early version in 1912, which was significantly different from the final 1915 edition. However, Woolf was suffering from deep and debilitating mental and psychological difficulties during this period and found producing the work incredibly strenuous. The novel underwent several serious revisions before its publication and in 1981 Woolf scholar Louise A. Desalvo released a version of the book as it might have been in 1912, under the original title Melymbrosia . Desalvo worked on the project for more than seven years, painstakingly attempting to reconstruct the novel as Woolf had first imagined it. According to Desalvo the original text contained a far stronger political strain which dealt with the topics of colonialism, homosexuality and womens rights. However, Woolf was advised by her friends and colleagues that it was much too early in a career to publish a work so critical of Britain and the author duly altered the work to create a novel that lacked the political and social edge she had originally intended.

The narrative centres on Rachel Vinrace, who travels to South America on her fathers ship and undergoes a voyage of self-discovery and personal enlightenment, all within a mythical framework. In the text, Woolf is able to cast a keen eye on Edwardian life and satirise elements of society while also focusing on the themes of sexuality and death. It is arguable that Woolf based Vinrace on herself and that Rachels journey and development mirrors the authors voyage from a sheltered and non-stimulating childhood to the intellectual, creative and personal freedom that she found amongst her contemporaries in the Bloomsbury Group. The Voyage Out is an intriguing and exciting novel that more than hints at the considerable talent of the author.

The first edition

The first American edition

Woolf, aged 20

As the streets that lead from the Strand to the Embankment are very narrow, it is better not to walk down them arm-in-arm. If you persist, lawyers clerks will have to make flying leaps into the mud; young lady typists will have to fidget behind you. In the streets of London where beauty goes unregarded, eccentricity must pay the penalty, and it is better not to be very tall, to wear a long blue cloak, or to beat the air with your left hand.

One afternoon in the beginning of October when the traffic was becoming brisk a tall man strode along the edge of the pavement with a lady on his arm. Angry glances struck upon their backs. The small, agitated figures for in comparison with this couple most people looked small decorated with fountain pens, and burdened with despatch-boxes, had appointments to keep, and drew a weekly salary, so that there was some reason for the unfriendly stare which was bestowed upon Mr. Ambroses height and upon Mrs. Ambroses cloak. But some enchantment had put both man and woman beyond the reach of malice and unpopularity. In his guess one might guess from the moving lips that it was thought; and in hers from the eyes fixed stonily straight in front of her at a level above the eyes of most that it was sorrow. It was only by scorning all she met that she kept herself from tears, and the friction of people brushing past her was evidently painful. After watching the traffic on the Embankment for a minute or two with a stoical gaze she twitched her husbands sleeve, and they crossed between the swift discharge of motor cars. When they were safe on the further side, she gently withdrew her arm from his, allowing her mouth at the same time to relax, to tremble; then tears rolled down, and leaning her elbows on the balustrade, she shielded her face from the curious. Mr. Ambrose attempted consolation; he patted her shoulder; but she showed no signs of admitting him, and feeling it awkward to stand beside a grief that was greater than his, he crossed his arms behind him, and took a turn along the pavement.