Virginia Woolf

Adeline Virginia Woolf was an English novelist and critic whose stream-of-conciousness technique and poetic style are among the most important contributions to the modern novel. Woolf was born in London, the daughter of the philosopher Sir Leslie Stephen, who educated her at home.

In about 1905 after the successive deaths of her mother and father, Woolf and her sister, Vanessa (an artist) made their home a gathering place for the former university colleagues of their older brother. The circle, which came to be known as the Bloomsbury group, included in addition to other members of the London intelligentsia, the writer Leonard Woolf, whom Virginia married in 1912. With her husband she founded Hogarth Press in 1917.

Virginia Woolf's early novels "The Voyage Out" (1915), "Night and Day" (1919) and "Jacob's Room" (1922), offer increasing evidence of her determination to expand the scope of the novel beyond mere storytelling. The next novels, "Mrs. Dalloway" (1925) and "To The Lighthouse" (1927), plot is non-existent. Instead psychological effects are are achieved through the use of imagery and metaphor.

Woolf was a critic of considerable influence, as well as a biographer and feminist. In "A Room of One's Own" (1929), she was among the first writers to espouse the cause of women's rights.

Throughout her life, Woolf suffered many bouts of mental illness. It is thought that she suffered from what is now known as Bipolar disorder. In March of 1941, Woolf, deeply depressed, committed suicide by filling her pockets with stones and walking into the River Ouse near her home. Her husband Leonard buried her ashes under a tree in the garden of their home.