{"id":269,"date":"2019-01-23T14:06:05","date_gmt":"2019-01-23T13:06:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/annedromache.wordpress.com\/?page_id=269"},"modified":"2025-05-16T09:57:16","modified_gmt":"2025-05-16T07:57:16","slug":"volume-one-1915-1919","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/stolb01web.ddns.net\/wordpress\/?page_id=269","title":{"rendered":"Volume One: 1915-1919"},"content":{"rendered":"
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My copy of The Diary of Virginia Woolf, Volume One 1915-1919, Harcourt<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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As she begins this diary, Virginia Woolf is almost thirty-three years old and still recuperating from an horrendous breakdown following the completion of her first novel, “The Voyage Out”, at the end of 1913; and that this is now, and belatedly, soon to be published. Both Virginia and Leonard are increasingly tormented by the war and all the ensuing repercussions upon their personal and professional lives. They are unsettled and struggling somewhat financially. Still, they continue socializing with friends and family, looking feverishly for a new abode (the nearby Hogarth House has become an option) and contemplating investing in a printing press. We also know that within weeks this diary will be abandoned as Virginia’s mental health again rapidly deteriorates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diary I: 1 January-15 February 1915<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The Green, Richmond<\/h5>\n\n\n
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The Green, Richmond.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Friday 1 January 1915<\/strong><\/em>: The first entry of what was to become the first volume of Virginia Woolf’s diary was written in the first New Year of the Great War (as it was then styled) at the lodgings overlooking The Green in Richmond; to which Virginia and Leonard had moved in 1914 to escape the hectic of London and in the interests of Virginia’s fragile constitution. Whether this personal writing endeavour was a resolution of sorts on Virginia Woolf’s own part, or a therapeutic one suggested perhaps by family, friend or doctor, is unclear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But on this New Year’s day, and the eve before, her concerns, as they often will be, surround domestic staff and costs, and the weather, and always not far away-the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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…Lily [says] she left because Mrs Hallett was ‘insulting’ to her…& Lily honestly meant no wrong…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…[wrote to] Mrs Waterlow about the chimney sweeping charges…tramped to the Co-ops. in rain & cold to protest against their bookkeeping…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…& found [on the way home] that the Formidable [British battleship] had been sunk in the channel…<\/p>\nVol 1 [pp.3-4] The Diary of Virginia Woolf,<\/em> ed. Anne Olivier Bell, 5 vols, Harcourt, 1977\u201384

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Through January<\/strong><\/em>, Woolf makes substantial entries every day – so it seems this private enquiry into and unto herself was a serious matter to which she brought commitment. We meet for the first time some of the most important people in her life – Leonard and Vanessa and all of Vanessa’s men, and their lovers in turn (yes, it is complicated!) but also the Morrells, the Stracheys, Desmond MacCarthy, Maynard Keynes. Already, Woolf’s sharp intelligence and wit shine through in her “scribblings” (I don’t know, but I can imagine her calling them such!), but equally so her insecurities and prejudices; sometimes irrational and explained only by the fragile state of mind to which she was intermittently captive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These early entries already suggest (more than suggest!) an ugly disposition towards, and discomfort with, ‘otherness’ – Leonard’s family is not spared Virginia Woolf’s blatantly anti-Semitic condescension, and the sight of obvious intellectual disability has her thinking out loud (or at least writing) of, what may be best described as, a drastic euthanasia solution. One can not help but wince at such vitriol, and no, I don’t believe everybody thought these things in 1915, but a look at this Wikipedia entry<\/a> in respect to the Mental Deficiency Act 1913 affirms the public and governmental sentiments of the time, and that the language Woolf uses does not deviate from the norm. The most I can do then, is place her attitudes in the perspective of her time and circumstances, and exacerbated by her own illness. She is not to be let off the hook – mitigating in her favour only the fact that she after all marries and loves Leonard, a Jewish man and, in a different way granted, she is only too familiar with mental illness and its repercussions and as much as she contemplates the (un)worthiness of other lives so does she often that of her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is an abundance of anecdote and gossip, trashing to the hilt, fun and games – a balm I suppose to the creeping effects of the War intruding upon every aspect of life. For instance, Sunday 17 January 1915<\/strong><\/em>, starting “unremarkably” Woolf tells us, evolves into something more when Marjorie Strachey comes to dine, and amidst much dithering confides of an illicit love affair with a married man – Jos Wedgwood, procured as she was by the Morrells – and all the complications of divorce and wife and seven children and the formidable Lady Strachey! [pp.20-22] A delight to read!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monday 1 February 1915<\/strong><\/em>: The first day of February could have been just another day consumed with house hunting, specifically negotiating for the nearby Hogarth House, but the Woolfs went into London that day, and Virginia relates the walk she took across Green Park to Days book shop in Piccadilly, and we are reading for the first time the conscious thoughts that would inspire the opening pages of Mrs. Dalloway<\/em><\/a> published ten years later. Not the geography and its inhabitants alone, but the frayed nerves of a people at war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the following day, in two brief sentences, VW communicates her bother again at having the Hogarth matter unresolved. The next entry is then on Saturday 13th Februar<\/em>y<\/strong>; and through to the Monday she talks of the weather – abysmal, walks and jaunts into London, of tea and concerts, chance meetings and visitors. Hogarth is not mentioned. And the war is casting its shadow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monday February 15th<\/strong><\/em>: The entry on this day, and the last we shall hear from Virginia Woolf for more than two years, ends thus:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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…I bought a ten & eleven penny blue dress, in which I sit at this moment.<\/p>\nVol 1 [p.35]
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It is left to the editor to offer some information regarding the next two years. (See Vol 1 p.35 The Diary of Virginia Woolf<\/em>, ed. Anne Olivier Bell, 5 vols, Harcourt, 1977\u201384) We are told that Virginia went to the dentist on the 17th February<\/strong><\/em> (always a traumatic affair for her) and that she and Leonard looked at a printing press on that same day. However, in the days to follow she became increasingly restless and unwell; soon to slide into this now familiar (to family and friends) state of “madness”. (I repeat the word “madness” here because that is the expression Olivier Bell uses – I am not clear on Woolf’s actual mental condition, but I do know there has been some research in this respect so I will try to investigate a little deeper. It should also be noted that these diaries were edited in the 1970s and some of Olivier Bell’s terminology should be received with that in mind.) Also it is known that Leonard signed a five-year lease on Hogarth House on 25th February<\/strong><\/em>, (Vol 1 p.33 footnote) and took possession on 25th March<\/strong><\/em>, and that Virginia joined him there shortly after. For many months she appears to have been in an incoherent, violent state and in need of constant care, and it was only towards the end of the year that she was able to return to a relatively normal life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through 1916<\/strong><\/em>, the Woolfs alternated between their new Richmond home and Asheham House in Sussex. In the absence of Virginia’s own voice, Hermione Lee’s terrific biography (Virginia Woolf<\/em>, Vintage, London, 1997) is informative in respect to these years; for instance, Virginia’s gradual return to health and then to reviewing, Leonard’s (and other’s) trials and tribulations in respect to exemption from military service and a really interesting account of the Woolfs’ enthusiastic initial endeavours with printing and their growing expertise and ambitions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Spring of 1917<\/strong><\/em>, after much vacillation, a printing press was finally purchased, and in the Summer the Woolfs produced their first publication under the Hogarth Press<\/a><\/strong> imprint before returning to Asheham. As Hermione Lee says in her biographical work: “Two Stories<\/em> came out in July, costing 1s. 6d., with four (unsigned) woodcut illustrations commissioned from their new acquaintance, Slade art-student, Dora Carrington (who would earn 15s. from her work). The two stories were Leonard\u2019s \u2018Three Jews<\/em>\u2019, and Virginia\u2019s \u2018The Mark on the Wall\u2019<\/em>.” (Lee, Hermione. Virginia Woolf . Random House. Kindle Edition.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The following entries are from the small notebook that Virginia kept during their stay at Asheham, from August through to the beginning of October, 1917<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diary II: 3 August 1917-6 October 1918<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Asheham House, Sussex.<\/h5>\n\n\n
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Asheham House, near Beddingham, Sussex<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Friday 3 August:<\/em><\/strong> “Came to Asheham…” <\/em>begins Woolf’s modest late summer notebook which is substantially different to the subsequent ones; the entries are mostly brief, mostly not caustic, and nor does she appear to miss even a day. With Leonard often away for conferences, one may wonder whether, more than anything, this was an exercise in discipline. The subject matter mostly revolves around the weather, gardening, walks, bicycle and day excursions, and whilst (very) interesting visitors are mentioned (No fear, the dish on Katherine Mansfield is yet to come!), (very) little is exacerbated upon. There is no mention of either her reading or writing; be it by doctor’s orders or Leonard’s or of her own initiative. Here a few exemplary entries: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Friday 10 August: <\/em> “L. up to Labour conference in London. Fine day again…to hills for blackberries…”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saturday 18 August<\/em>: “…Met K.M. [Katherine Mansfield] – her train very late. Bought 1 doz. Lily roots & some red leaved plants…”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunday 9 September<\/em>: “…picnic at Firle in the afternoon. Nessa & 5 children came after we had done…Walked home over the downs. Red sky over the seas.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friday 28 September<\/em>: ” …Bicycled to Charleston [Vanessa’s home]. Roger [Fry] there…”<\/p>\nVol. 1 [pp.39-55]
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On 5th October<\/em><\/strong> the Woolfs returned to Richmond, and Virginia begins a new book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Diary iii: 8 October 1917-3 January 1918<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Hogarth House, Paradise Road, Richmond.<\/h5>\n\n\n
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Hogarth House, Richmond: Home of Leonard and Virginia Woolf from 1915 until 1924<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Monday 8 October:<\/em><\/strong> A new start inspired by a chance discovery of that very book that introduced the voice of Virginia in 1915, only to be silenced by her illness. Her enthusiasm is rekindled, to be, she says: “…written after tea, written indiscreetly…&…L. has promised to add his page when he has something to say…”<\/em>. And this first day of her diary is, she says, “…the happiest day that exists for me…”<\/em> – London, shopping for Leonard, paper & pens, the press… All is well it seems in Virginia’s world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Busy, complicated days follow. The shock of Leonard being “called up” – and what to do! Preparing the manuscript of Katherine Mansfield’s short story “Prelude” for publication. On which, it should be said that the Thursday 11 October<\/em><\/strong> entry discusses Mansfield being a guest at dinner on the previous evening, and I read the passage such that this is a first meeting:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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…wish was that one’s first impression of K.M. was not that she stinks like a – well civet cat […] taken to street walking […] shocked by her commonness at first sight; lines so hard & cheap. However […] she is so intelligent & inscrutable that she repays friendship…<\/p>\nVol. 1 [p.58]<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

But that appears not to be so because Katherine Mansfield was a guest at Asheham from the 18 August until 22 August <\/em><\/strong> [pp.43-44] and an editorial footnote [p.43] says that Mansfield probably first met the Woolfs sometime towards the end of 1916. Hermione Lee on the other hand says they did not meet until February 1917. Perhaps every meeting with KM (or anyone else for that matter) was, for Virginia Woolf’s ever alert writer’s eye, a first impression perceived anew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunday 11th November:<\/strong> <\/em> Only here – for the first, and last (?) time – does Leonard contribute his tuppence worth – on the occasion of a particularly unsatisfactory luncheon with the Webbs<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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…said that I would occasionally write […] here […] One of the worst Webb meals to which we have been […]Immediately after luncheon we fled […]Took a bus from Westminster […] very cold but refreshing after the discourse on committees.<\/p>\nVol 1. [p74]<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n

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Virginia Woolf<\/a>, a Lady Ottoline Morrell vintage snapshot print, circa 1917
\u00a9 National Portrait Gallery, London<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Leonard bemoans the unhappy constellation of guests and incessant talk from Beatrice<\/a> about the Reconstruction Committee and committees for this and that, and the unimpressive Tawneys<\/a> and other (to his mind) vacuous talk, and they flee at the first chance. Virginia reports on the house full of guests when they got home – one of the more enduring friendships in Woolf’s life Ka Cox<\/a>, and the Toynbees<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s a shame really that a marriage diary like that of the Hawthornes <\/a>did not develop – not just for us, the curious of posterity, but in the interests of the subjects themselves and their complicated union. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

November<\/em><\/strong> days are aplenty with activity – the Women’s Guild, London, printing presses – bemoaning not receiving any letters and Sundays as boring, but the entries sparkle with wit and observation of the company she kept; exemplified in a chaotic weekend spent at Garsington<\/a>. It is reasonable to wonder whether the adjacent snap was taken during this spirited sojourn. In terms of her diary, interesting is this remark on Thursday, 22nd November<\/em><\/strong>, a few days after their return:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I boasted […] about this book[…] filling it from a never exhausted fount at Garsington […] Ottoline keeps one by the way, devoted however to her “inner life”; which made me reflect that I haven’t an inner life.<\/p>\nVol. 1 p.79 <\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Doesn’t have an inner life! Indeed! (Footnote 28. [p79] references Morrell’s memoirs and confirmation of this exchange.) Was Woolf unaware of that which she was giving away of her self? Never explicitly – no impassioned soul-searching or bearing for her – but in the reflective mood, her mood, that hangs over just about everything she writes; giving enough to tantalise and want to come back for more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monday 3rd December – Monday 17th December:<\/strong><\/em> A tormenting few weeks these must have been. Sunday had brought the news of the death in battle of Leonard’s brother Cecil and the injury to his brother Philip (see also 4th Jan. 1915, footnote 16, p.7). Leonard visited his brother at Fishmonger’s Hall on London Bridge (just over 100 years later the scene of a terrorist attack<\/a>) that had been converted to a military hospital on Wednesday. Air raids and sleepless nights followed, and spent with servants and cocoa. A long entry on 7th December<\/strong><\/em> is full of gossip about family, friends and foe. On 14th December<\/em><\/strong> Virginia accompanies Leonard to again see Philip, described by her as in a state of “absentmindedness” but recovering well enough. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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An editorial note tells us that the Woolfs went to Asheham for Christmas on 20th December<\/strong><\/em>. The one entry she makes there she rewrites on her return to Richmond and is dated Thursday 3 January 1918.<\/em><\/strong> In it she recalls her calendar in the last days before leaving for Asheham as being full but revelry being intermittently interrupted by air raid warnings. The Christmas period was cold but fine, Virginia reads a lot and revels in the wintry landscapes, and it is very social with visits from Maynard Keynes and Clive Bell, a stay with Vanessa and Duncan and family and friends at Charleston<\/a> where she is thrilled to report that her “…diary habit has come to life…”. I note that Leonard is peculiarly absent, until the very end …<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“So we come to an end of the year, & any attempt to sum it up is beyond me […] news from Russia, which has just come in and drawn L. to remark ‘A very interesting state of things -‘ ‘And what is going to happen?’ ‘No human being can foretell that.’ ” The End [p95] <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Diary IV: 4 January 2018-23 July 1918<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Hogarth House, Paradise Road, Richmond.<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

The first days of January<\/em><\/strong> are spectacular for their ordinariness: “…breaking…my tortoiseshell spectacles”<\/em> (p.99) – in far recent times a spurned accessory of necessity and in more recent times much in mode – and later to London to have them “seen to”, Hampton Court, “infernal” weather, burst water pipes, printing days and sedentary days – amongst other things, and in other words all the comings and goings of herself and others that constitute a Woolf life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The “1<\/em>917 Club”<\/strong> is of interest. Constituted on 19th December 1917 (see transcribed 3 January entry and footnote Vol. 1 p.94), the Woolfs’ first visit there on Friday 4 January 1918<\/em><\/strong> is noted as a success, and as time goes on it becomes the place<\/em> to meet up with their friends in London, referred to then as just ’17 Club’ and somewhere along the way as just ‘the club’. I have perhaps overlooked earlier mentions of how it came to be, and where exactly it is, but can think that “1917” relates to the year of revolution in Russia which certainly fits with the socio-political concerns (and sympathies) of Leonard. Internet research leads to rather meager results, but that at least seem to confirm Leonard as a founder<\/a> and places it in Gerrard Street, Soho.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And while thinking Russian, he called always Kot, and whose name in full is Samuel Solomonovitch Koteliansky<\/a>, comes to dinner on Friday, 18 January<\/em><\/strong>, and Virginia takes the opportunity to describe a “likeness to the Russians of literature”<\/em> [p.108] which is surprising (or maybe not!) in that she then goes on to describe his apathy to Russia, his conviction that nothing good will come of revolution and that civil war is imminent. But his disparaging words on his friend Katherine Mansfield must have thrilled her no end:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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…explained Katherine’s soul, not […] to her credit. Her lies & poses […] nor does he find more than a slight gift for writing in her. I don’t know that this last pleases me however, though it sounds as if I wrote it down for that reason…<\/p>\nVol 1. p108<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n

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Samuel Solomonovich (‘Kot’) Koteliansky; Lady Ottoline Morrell<\/a>, vintage snapshot, 1933 NPG Ax143571 \u00a9 National Portrait Gallery, London<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

There again the K.M. problem! Given that Kot’s relationship with Mansfield seems to have predated Woolf’s own, one may wonder whether she has interpreted his impression of Mansfield to confirm her own complicated opinion of her. She somewhat intimates as much I think. (At JSTOR is a very interesting essay<\/a> on Koteliansky’s role in the British modernist literary world and his work as translator – with amongst others VW & KM!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of February<\/strong><\/em> is lost to tooth extractions, influenza and a retreat to Asheham and the countryside for the last week or so of the month; as explained in the entry of Saturday 2 March 1918<\/strong><\/em> upon their return to Richmond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saturday 9 March 1918<\/strong><\/em>: To be noted is the Woolfs’ attendance at a ‘Suffrage Rally’ at the Kingsway Hall [Vol.1 p.125 footnote 15] which obviously informed those parts of Virginia’s 1919 second novel, Night and Day<\/em>, that are set in a Suffragist office. Her remarks are indicative of her discomfort with, not just what she sees as their exhibitionist antics, but also the political agenda of the Suffragists. She bemoans the multitudes of one sex and the inability to accept and celebrate triumph with wit and eloquence (see Guardian citation<\/a> – excerpt below). Who invited them to the event is not divulged – a Strachey perhaps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Reform Bill Passed: Women’s Vote Won<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Representation of the People Bill, which doubles the electorate, giving the Parliamentary vote to about six million women and placing soldiers and sailors over 19 on the register (with a proxy vote for those on service abroad), simplifies the registration system, greatly reduces the cost of elections, and provides that they shall all take place on one day, and by a redistribution of seats tends to give a vote the same value everywhere passed both Houses yesterday and received the Royal assent…<\/p>\nThe (Manchester) Guardian, From our Parliamentary Correspondent, Thu 7 Feb 1918 18.42 GMT<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Friday 5 April 1918<\/strong><\/em>: The Woolf’s return to Richmond after having been at Asheham since 21 March<\/em><\/strong>. The visit of James Strachey with No\u00ebl Olivier unites for me two names almost synonymous with Woolf’s world. I will surely come back to the Stracheys, but while there was a biography only last year (Noble Savages: The Olivier Sisters <\/a><\/em>by Sarah Watling, pub. Vintage)<\/em> about the four sisters – Margery, Brynhild, Daphne, No\u00ebl – and they all turn up at various times in this diary; Bryn for instance was at tea at the Club on Tuesday 19 March<\/em><\/strong> [p129], they warrant more than a footnote. And most especially when Anne Olivier Bell is Brynhild’s daughter<\/a>! Just another mesh in the intricate weave of Bloomsbury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Virginia’s entry of Monday 8 Apri<\/em>l<\/strong> [pp 134-135] is a delight. A chance meeting with Roger Fry in the Charing Cross Road – such were the times I suppose when one of the world’s great metropolises was at heart just a big town – “…a whirlwind …blown straight into a bookshop…” <\/em> to buy an obscure French novel (Et Cie <\/em>by Jean-Richard Bloch – “a Jew” she says) & then to tea at the club & Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson<\/a>. Then to Poland St. to pick up her watch that was being repaired – but alas she did not have enough money to take it with her “…owing to the seductive magic of Roger…”<\/em>! I hope she at least enjoyed the French novel!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leonard makes his presence felt at the beginning of the merry month of May. On Wednesday 1 May<\/em><\/strong> he writes a paragraph on dining at the Webbs – where there is much talk of peace as well as war and the idea of a League of Nations. And a few days later, it is his turn to have a tooth out. It is on this day, Monday 6 May<\/em><\/strong>, that a visit to the club finds “…James [Strachey I presume] reading the Antigone”<\/em>. [I see what Virginia Woolf surely saw: Edward Pargiter in The Years immersed in “Antigone” at Oxford and fantasising about his cousin Kitty.<\/em>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tuesday 28 May 1918<\/em><\/strong>: A long entry relates the previous days, since May 17<\/em><\/strong>, spent at Asheham, and the days preceding that at Hogarth which included the newly married (to John Middleton Murray) Katherine Mansfield<\/a> coming to lunch on 9 May<\/em><\/strong> looking “…marmoreal…ghastly ill”<\/em> [p.150] and Clive “…babbled & prattles & hinted at all his friends & parties & interests…”<\/em> [p.151]. Asheham was in heightened Spring fever – the weather, the flowers, fishes, frogs, the birds – she doesn’t mention the bees. There was a picnic with Roger and a night spent at Charleston. “May in England is all they say – so teeming, amorous, & creative…”<\/em> [p.151] she says, and whether she speaks of nature or man or both?<\/p>\n\n\n

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T.S. Eliot; Mark Gertler; Lady Ottoline Morrell, vintage snapshot print, 1920\u00a9 National Portrait Gallery, London<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

June 1918:<\/em><\/strong> Gaps in Woolf’s diary are accounted for firstly, by the weather – days for enjoying the outdoors not curled up inside reading and writing – then by the interruptions of a steady stream of visitors; Virginia seems astounded at their popularity (false modesty perhaps!). And then there are these League of Nations Society meetings to which she accompanies Leonard, and infighting and intrigues galore. On June 24 <\/em><\/strong>Kot and Mark Gertler dine with the Woolfs and Virginia restates her approval of the former and shares a less than flattering monogram of Gertler<\/a> (“…well worth talking to…” <\/em>she says, but “not to be trusted”<\/em> and “probably unscrupulous”<\/em>). In both appraisals, and again not to be overlooked, their Jewishness seems almost irrationally important to her – I mean, why mention it, Virginia? <\/em> There’s news out of Charleston (Vanessa is pregnant), the continued setting of Mansfield’s Prelude<\/em>, servants, and always the Club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then on Friday 5 July<\/strong><\/em> “…L. printed off the last of Prelude “<\/em> and on Tuesday 9 July<\/em><\/strong> “…The title page […] done on Sunday […] folding & stapling […] ready for glueing & sending out tomorrow & Thursday…”<\/em> [p.164]. And then on Wednesday 10 July<\/strong><\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We have sent off our first copies this evening, after spending the afternoon in glueing & covering. They surprised us when done by their professional look – the stiff blue cover pleases us particularly. I must read the book through after dinner, partly to find possible faults, but also to make up my mind how much I like it as literature.<\/p>\nVol. 1 p.165<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n

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Katherine Mansfield<\/a>
by Lady Ottoline Morrell, print, 1916-1917
NPG Ax140568 \u00a9 National Portrait Gallery, London<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

To be clearly heard here the echoes of Virginia Woolf’s sheer pride in the results of her joint venture with Leonard, and their craftsmanship on display (here it is at The British Library<\/em> in all its “stiff blue cover” glory<\/a>), her impatience to read the finished product, the wanting to find faults. And with what? With their own handwork? Or, with whom? Katherine Mansfield? And then there is her continued uncertainty about KM – her person and her literary merit. It’s as if Woolf is excited by, but also resents, their shared labours, aware that she has been gifted a peculiar pleasure by this complicated, ailing young woman. But her literary appraisal is generous enough, on Friday 12 July <\/strong><\/em>she notes “…I myself find a kind of beauty about the story; a little vapourish I admit, & freely watered with some of her cheap realities; but it has the living power, the detached existence of a work of art.” <\/em>[p.167]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also on this day<\/em><\/strong>, the Woolfs met Lytton Strachey<\/a> at the Club for tea, with much of the conversation to do with his newly published book Eminent Victorians<\/a><\/em> which was a roaring success and had generally been critically acclaimed, though not so by the, also eminent, Mrs. Humphry Ward<\/a>. Many a non-fiction fare from this period has long been forgotten, not so this one – an epochal work of biography that moved beyond a prosaic reeling off of truths and half-truths and damned lies all in the interest of the subject’s good name, but rather a work unto itself, a new art form saying as much about Strachey as about the four subjects. May I suggest this article in The Guardian<\/em><\/a> 100 years after the publication of Eminent Victorians<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tuesday 23 July<\/strong><\/em>: Woolf looks back a few days, and the Saturday 20 July <\/strong><\/em>visit with Lytton and Carrington<\/a> at Tidmarsh, the former is “…very amusing, charming, benignant …”<\/em> and Carrington “…is silent, a little subdued […] kisses him & waits on him & gets good advice & some sort of protection.”<\/em> This, another relationship amongst her intimates that perturbs Woolf greatly, and her observance of Carrington’s dependency upon Strachey would prove, in time, to be tragically prophetic. Carrington often irritated her, but did she also recognise a familiar trait that would always make life a struggle?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the last entry of Diary IV, and the next written in the same form starts just a few days later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Diary V: 27 July 2018-12 november 1918<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Hogarth House, Paradise Road, Richmond.<\/h5>\n\n\n
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‘Garsington’<\/a> by Lady Ottoline Morrell, vintage snapshot print, 1922
NPG Ax141255 \u00a9 National Portrait Gallery, London<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Monday 29 July:<\/strong><\/em> Another wonderful discourse of the joys of a weekend with Ottoline at Garsington – fine weather, finer food, perfect garden, endless walks and talks – “some million words [said] … listened to a great many more” <\/em>[p.173] An interesting Mrs. Hamilton<\/a> (& as I have just discovered, later to become a Labour Party MP) is introduced, a founding member of the 17 Club & (surreptitiously) overheard for the first time by VW at the club just days before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visiting Mark Gertler’s studio, Woolf is shown his “…teapot” (now in the Tate Collection) and, as previously (see June 24<\/strong><\/em> above), the meeting leads to rather unflattering comments on his person and his art. She seems to have concluded that Gertler compensates for his artistic deficits – primarily, an obsession with “form” – with intractability and self-possession. Personally, I rather like his teapot<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Tea Pot 1918 Mark Gertler 1891-1939<\/a> Purchased 1948 \u00a9 Tate
CC-BY-NC-ND 3.0 (Unported)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On Wednesday 31 July<\/em><\/strong> the Woolfs decamp to Asheham. (A longer summer sojourn it seems.) Unusually, she takes her diary with her this time, and so there is an immediacy (and lightness) to her writing that is often missing in those entries written after the fact. During the first weeks of August<\/em><\/strong> there are passages of interest including Virginia’s reading of Byron and Christina Rossetti [pp178-181], a curt dismissive of Mansfield’s Bliss<\/em>, and she mentions the parallel writing in her Asheham diary of all things domestic and in the fields of nature [p179]. She alternately bemoans the lack of visitors (Friday 8 August<\/em><\/strong>) and how to avoid them once they are there (Monday 19 August<\/strong><\/em>). Into September<\/strong><\/em>, brother Adrian and his wife Karin, visit (& are those to be avoided!) and there is a stunning entry dated Wednesday 18 September<\/em><\/strong> on the visiting Webbs. October comes<\/strong><\/em>, and soon V & L are back in Richmond and a London social life begins again – with Vanessa & Duncan & Clive, Maynard, Roger; she meets the Sitwells<\/a> [pp201-202]- and Leonard’s editing and politicking and the war (and the peace) predominate. A quarrel concerning Mary Hutchinson<\/a> (Clive’s lover & Lytton Strachey’s cousin & to become whether she liked it or not a constant in VW’s life) irritates her madly – the matter of who (Virginia) said what (that Vanessa didn’t care for MH) to whom (Gertler – a guest at Asheham at the end of September) is in her (VW’s) opinion totally overblown (“My conscience is clear … friendships maintained in this atmosphere are altogether too sharp, brittle, & painful.” <\/em>[p.208]). On Monday 28 October <\/strong><\/em>the casual mention of “…a letter from Eliot asking to come & see us”<\/em>. A footnote identifies Thomas Stearns Eliot<\/a> and that this would lead to the first meeting between Woolf and T.S. Eliot. [p.210].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monday 11 November 1918<\/strong><\/em>: Days before came surrenders and expectations and Wilhelm II going into exile in Holland, and then the Armistice – in the words of Virginia Woolf:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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…the guns went off, announcing the peace. A siren hooted on the river…The rooks wheeled round, & were for a moment, the symbolic look of creatures performing some ceremony, partly of thanksgiving, partly of valediction over the grave. A very cloudy still day, the smoke toppling over heavily towards the east; & that too wearing for a moment a look of something floating, waving, drooping<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Tuesday 12 November]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Should have left it with the rooks and smoke]…up to London…A fat slovenly woman…shaking hands with two soldiers…half drunk. But she & her like possessed London…staggering up the muddy pavements in the rain…Taxicabs were crowded …& yet there was no centre, no form for all this wandering emotion to take. The crowds had nowhere to go, nothing to do; they were in the state of children with too long a holiday. Perhaps the respectable supposed what joy they felt; there seemed no mean between tipsy ribaldry & rather sour disapproval …standing in queues, every one wet, many shops shut …& in everyone’s mind the same restlessness & inability to settle down, & yet discontent with whatever it was possible to do.<\/p>\nVol 1. pp.216-217<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Woolf’s words do not exactly hit the celebratory tone one would have imagined as the Great War ends; perhaps they (who were well informed) had over the last months of negotiations become use to the idea of an imminent peace. The disparaging snob certainly comes again to the fore, but perhaps also a latent recognition of shared emotions struggling to find release, and maybe, if she had thought about it, also shared losses and griefs that knew not “class” nor reason. Fittingly perhaps, this book (Diary V) ends here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The editor tells us that the Diary VI<\/strong><\/em> is then continued at the back of an exercise book which Woolf had begun to use in January 1918 for notes on books she was reading or reviewing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DIARY Vi: 16 NOVEMBER 1918-24 January 1919<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Hogarth House, Paradise Road, Richmond.<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Friday 15 November<\/strong><\/em>: A footnote explains [p.217] that Virginia dated this as Friday November 16th 1918<\/strong><\/em>, so presumably the assumption is she got the date wrong, though it could have been the day I suppose. But anyway she begins by explaining her recycling of the book she uses here – “I’ve no money…besides by waiting…” [p.217] – placing book buying there amongst her pleasures; and to be heightened by temporary denial. She actually says “scale of my pleasures”; which could just be a turn of phrase, but I note the Homeric language of the nearest and dearest ordered in terms of affection. We are informed of the General Election announcement made (footnote: on the 14th Nov, Parliament to be dissolved on the 25th and GE on 14th December [p.218]), a conversation with Desmond MacCarthy that I don’t quite get (I’ll come back to it!) except that from the footnote [p.218] the literary editorship of the New Statesman<\/em> awaits him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Importantly, here, in the midst of writing this entry (so she says) she is interrupted by the expected Mr. Eliot …<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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…a polished, cultivated, elaborate young American, [slow talking]…beneath the surface […] very intellectual, intolerant, with strong views of his own, & a poetic creed […] Ezra Pound & Wyndham Lewis as […] “very interesting writer”…admires Mr Joyce immensely…3 or 4 poems for use to look at…two years [work] since he works all day in a Bank…I became…conscious of a very intricate & highly organised framework of poetic belief…I think he believes in “living phrases” & their difference from dead ones…making this new poetry flower on the stem of the oldest.<\/p>\nVol. 1 pp.218-219<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n

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Lady Ottoline Morrell, T.S. Eliot; vintage snapshot print, 1920 National Portrait Gallery Photographs Collection<\/a> NPG Ax140905<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The above shot taken with (and perhaps by) Ottoline may very well portrait the young Eliot that Woolf met on that day. Interesting is also Woolf’s addition, placed at the end of the 15 November <\/em><\/strong>entry but from the point of view of the next – 21 November<\/strong><\/em>, that offers support for her first impressions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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-I may add what Desmond has just (Thursday 21st Nov.<\/strong>) told me [that he asked Eliot how] he came to add […] at the end of a poem on his Aunt & the Boston Evening Transcript that phrase about an infinitely long street, & “I like La Rochefoucauld saying goodbye” (or words to that effect). Eliot replied that they were a recollection of Dante’s Purgatorio!<\/p>\nVol. 1 p.219<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The footnote to this page provides the said verse (from Prufrock and other Observations<\/em>, 1917 Faber, London, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York) in question, and here it is at Poetry Foundation<\/a> as a facsimile from the October, 1915 issue of Poetry Magazine<\/em>. While Rochefoucauld<\/a> is beyond me I’m afraid, in the past I have been known to wander blindly through Dante’s worlds, and I can certainly “hear” in the rhythm of Eliot’s verse echoes of the ‘divine’. For example:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When evening quickens faintly in the street,\nWakening the appetites of life in some\n...\nI mount the steps and ring the bell, turning\nWearily, as one would turn to nod good-bye to Rochefoucauld\n\n- from Three Poems<\/em> by T.S. Eliot - Poetry Magazine (October 1915)<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Saturday 30 November<\/strong><\/em>: Bemoaning her slackness through the last weeks, Virginia tells of a night at the ballet (Diaghilev Ballet at the London Coliseum on the 28th November, footnote [p.222]); performers that night included Lydia Lopokova – little did she know I suppose that Lopokova would soon enter her intimate circle through her relationship with Maynard Keynes. She states also that she is making weekly visits to Katherine Mansfield in Hampstead; somewhat contraire to her frequent grumblings and indicative of her curiosity about, and perhaps sympathy for, one she had begrudgingly begun to acknowledge as a literary equal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
December<\/em><\/strong> is busy with reading and writing book reviews; all good reasons not to return to Night & Day<\/em>, visiting (KM & Murry, both of whom she suddenly “likes”!) and being visited upon; a weekend with Roger Fry and talk of trouble at the Omega<\/a> – his dispute with Vanessa and Duncan about them accepting independent commissions. The last entry for this momentous year is on Tuesday 17 December<\/em><\/strong> informing of what is to be done before leaving for Asheham on Friday, the delight of them having a week alone without servants, her commitment to proofing her novel and Leonard’s to completing his book  on economics and imperialism in Africa [p.229]. She ends reporting on the mild weather, continued Bolshevik insurgencies and an overly optimistic outlook for Labour in the election (the Liberal-Conservative coalition won an overwhelming majority [footnote p.229]). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some days are to be explained before turning to the new book. Anne Olivier Bell notes that Virginia Woolf did indeed go to Asheham on Friday 20 December <\/em><\/strong>and Leonard the next day, Julian and Quentin Bell joined the Woolfs on the 23 December<\/em><\/strong> due to Vanessa’s confinement as had been arranged, Maynard Keynes and Duncan Grant came to tea on Christmas Day and Vanessa gave birth in fact on that same day. The Bell boys returned to Richmond with the Woolfs on 1 January 1919<\/strong><\/em>, and on the same day Virginia suffered from tooth ache, followed by an extraction the next day and bleeding and headaches. The boys joined their father at Gordon Square on 9 January<\/em><\/strong>. Virginia was bedridden until 16 January<\/strong><\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
 The entries for 20, 22, and 24 January<\/strong><\/em> were originally written in the makeshift Diary VI<\/em><\/strong> (see Vol. 1 Appendix 2) but were transcribed with additions into the new book for 1919 (Diary VII<\/strong><\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DIARY ViI: 20 January 1919-28 December 1919<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Hogarth House, Paradise Road, Richmond.<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
Monday 20 January 1919:<\/strong><\/em>  Explaining her bedridden weeks at year’s beginning, we hear of the strict regime Virginia was placed under by Leonard whilst she convalesced, including writing for only an hour every day. I suppose teeth problems a hundred years ago could be the cause of extreme duress, but one may presume other reasons for the decline in her health – the fuss of Vanessa’s new baby, looking after two young boys, dissatisfaction with not getting done that which she planned. And the rational behind this recurring writing ban therapy imposed by Leonard (on whose advice?) is questionable. Woolf tells us that she has reread her diary for the last year, and is only mildly appalled at the quality – “…it does not count as writing” (to which I can only say I would give an awful lot to be able to scribble hastily with such verve!), and then proceeds to imagine the 50 year old VW accumulating her memories from these diaries. This musing suggests to her that she should evaluate and write up her various friendships –  the idea being that the older self will be able to verify with all the hindsight of the years what she got right and what not. As with her previous contemplation of “scale of pleasures” (see Friday November 16th 1918<\/strong><\/em>), this desire to order her scale of affections is, I believe, even more Homeric in tone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then on the 22nd<\/em><\/strong> (having returned to bed for a a couple of days), she continues with this task she set for herself; grouping these friends of hers, appearing as they have at different times in her hitherto life, is an intricate matter – some are like concentric circles, others are independent and run parallel; all defined by place or person or both. The group she contemplates first is of longest standing, associated with Thoby, Cambridge and Hyde Park Gate – Lytton, Desmond and Saxon Sydney-Turner.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Oddly enough …” Woolf says on Friday 24 January<\/strong><\/em> about having being moved to contact Lytton on this day. [Hardly odd, I would counter, as you did seem to place him atop the order of  your affections, more odd is that you hadn’t been in contact with him for six months or so. What troubled you, Virginia, his complicated household of three, or is it his recent fame?] <\/em>She then launches in into a monograph that includes a lot of “brilliants” only to be then mitigated as “conventionally [so]…”  or “…lacks originality, & substance”, and “… when I think of a Strachey, I think of someone infinitely cautious, elusive & unadventurous”<\/em> [p.236] The scalpel is sharp even with, perhaps especially with, friends. On Thursday 30 January<\/strong><\/em>, word is received from Lytton that he cannot dine with them as was arranged the previous week, with a mercurial excuse that Woolf appears to doubt. This thought she takes into the next days, and Desmond ringing for a chat (31 January<\/strong><\/em>) and his sympathetic enquiries of her person she places in direct contrast to Lytton and his involvement with himself and his new found celebrity. Later (Tues. Feb. 4th. indented in margin) Woolf questions her appraisal of Strachey. How fair, or right, could her arguments pertaining to his work be when he was so revered amongst his peers? Was she jealous of his success? She ponders this, then says: “…while I admire, enjoy [agree] up to a point …I’m not interested in what he writes”<\/em>. She stands firm in her opinion: “…he is a great deal better than his books.”<\/em> [p.238] A backhanded compliment to be sure!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tuesday 18 February:<\/em><\/strong> VW first turns her attention to Desmond MacCarthy<\/a>. And a wonderful portrait it is too. By far the nicest of the troop; of that she is clear. As unambitious as he is good natured, his work brilliant but fragmentary.  She imagines a worth to be discovered:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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I can see myself…going through his desk…shaking out unfinished pages from between…blotting paper, &…old bills….making…a small book…as a proof to the younger generation that Desmond was the most gifted of us all.  But why did he never do anything? they will ask.<\/p>\nVol. 1 [pp241-242]<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
And of Saxon Sydney-Turner<\/a> Virginia despairs, as (she says) he says of himself: “one lonely if alone, & bored if in company”<\/em> (a rather brilliant summing up of oneself I think!), but recognises a fundamental integrity that is dependable and uncomplicated, and  can not be cast aside;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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You would never find him wanting…callous…insincere…or grudging the last farthing of his possessions. <\/p>\nVol. 1 [p242]<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Having done with, for the moment at least, this trio, Woolf gets back to Mansfield – as she invariably does – only to wonder whether she and Katherine remain friends; having not heard from her since December. One should say, well, it IS only February; but to her the silence rings loud. A friendship “founded on quicksands” she bemoans [p.243]. They will eventually meet again on March 22<\/strong><\/em> whereupon “something dark & catastrophic” is intimated, but VW will “find with Katherine [that what she doesn’t find with others]… a sense of ease & interest … about our precious art.” Am I wrong or is Woolf not aware of the severity of Mansfield’s illness (tuberculosis)? Certainly not, it seems, of the intensive treatment she had undergone in January [footnote p.248]. Perhaps she would have preferred to have been “dropped” by Mansfield; giving her adequate reason for disparagement, rather than, like others also, being kept justifiably at bay because of the dire circumstances or her health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In general, beyond the shadow cast by KM, March<\/em><\/strong> [pp. 247-261] is ripe with anecdote and observation, and fun to read – Murry & Leonard & the Athenaeum<\/em>, Charleston with Vanessa and Duncan and baby; evoking all the chaos and charm of this hybrid family, brilliant dining outs and teas, Hope Mirrlees<\/a> (is she smitten? I ask), Night & Day<\/em>, Clive & Gordon Sq. and the reminiscence inspired (VW quotes Vanessa along the lines of ” …in that drawing room as though it were 1907 again, & yet with so complete a re-arrangement of our parts”) [pp.260-261].<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before Easter<\/strong><\/em> Woolf is engrossed in essays for the Times Literary Supplement<\/em> – “Modern Novels” (10 April 1919 and later in The Common Reader<\/em> (1925) as “Modern Fiction”<\/a>) and “The Novels of Defoe” (24 April) and, among other things, consternated by Clive’s contention that Eliot doesn’t like her while at the same time having him to dinner.  A rare Easter<\/strong><\/em> is spent idling in London, entertaining and being entertained, before going to Asheham on 25 April<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Back in London at the beginning of May<\/strong><\/em>, the Woolfs quickly resume their routine, including on Tuesday 6 May<\/strong><\/em> going to the club after which, instead of going to “Bertie’s lecture” (a Bertrand Russell lecture series titled “The Analysis of the Mind”<\/a>), she enjoys the entertainment of songsters at Trafalgar Sq. [footnote p.270]. Interesting I think that VW would forgo what one would have thought to be intellectually stimulating stuff for musical variety amongst the folk. Given her skepticism in respect to Freud & co., and irritation towards Adrian & Karin<\/a>, perhaps she avoided intentionally any discourse venturing too close to matters of the “mind”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Monday 12 May<\/strong><\/em>: Published by the Hogarth Press on this day: The Critic in Judgment<\/a><\/em> by J. Middleton Murry, Poems<\/a><\/em> by T.S. Eliot and Kew Gardens<\/a><\/em> by Virginia Woolf, & the footnote tells that the two last were printed and paper-covered entirely by the Woolfs. (Murry’s work is hard to track down in digitised form; the link is to a battered but presumably original cover and handwritten order notes made by LW. The other links are for the cover only of Poems<\/em> and the entire digitised version of the original Kew Gardens<\/em>, both on the British Library website.) May<\/em><\/strong> proceeds with a veritable bustle of activity in wonderful sunshine, and ends in Asheham, as she tells us on Whit-Monday 9 June, <\/em><\/strong>with a quarrel with Vanessa about her woodcut for Kew Gardens<\/em> and ramblings around about that ended in the purchase of The Round House. On the 10th June<\/strong><\/em> they have the news, via James Strachey, that Maynard has resigned from the Treasury in protest against the conditions of the Paris Peace agreement (his prophetic The Economic Consequences of the Peace<\/a><\/em> will be published later that year), which little did they realise would mark the beginnings of a legendary career. [p.280] The 14th June<\/em><\/strong> records a striking field-trip to Hampstead (exacerbated upon on 18th June<\/em><\/strong>) that has VW first visting with the Murrys, and then with Adrian and Karin (Costelloe), Ray (Costelloe) Strachey and Dorothy (Strachey) Bussy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thursday 3rd July:<\/strong><\/em> A colorful entry explaining how Monks House<\/strong> came to be acquired. On a meander to the Round House, spied upon by VW an auction sign for the aforesaid, and within days a love affair began that culminated in the purchase for \u00a3700. By 12th July<\/strong><\/em> she is already imagining the possibilities the future at Monks House will bring, but also noting the signing of the Peace Treaty at Versailles on 28th June<\/strong><\/em> and the gradual return to normality to be observed in the shop windows: “…Sugar cakes, currant buns, & mounds of sweets…”. She has a chance meeting with Morgan Forster at Waterloo, whereupon they discuss writing (Picture this: a Woolf & a Forster in the Summer of 1919 discussing amid the bustle of a crowded railway platform the literary form…!) and says how much she likes him, and then to Katherine’s and decides she likes her “more & more”. Did the calmness and kindness and intellectual stimulus of the Forster encounter inspire this warmth? On Saturday 19 July<\/strong><\/em> the official Peace celebrations are resolutely not her thing but described through the eyes of the servants: it rains, the procession through Richmond – “… soldiers & tanks & nurses & bands…they said the most splendid sight of their lives…”. A “servants festival” she calls it, and more:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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…something got up to pacify & placate ‘the people’…There’s something calculated & politic & insincere about these peace rejoicings…with no beauty, & not much spontaneity…<\/p>\nVol. 1 [p.292]<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Her appreciation of the day was not improved by a 1917 Club dinner in honour of Annie Besant <\/a>(VW’s opinion put to one side, another one of those extraordinary biographies from the time) that rankled her even more, and beyond Besant alone, generalising about a certain ‘sort’:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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It [is] clear that the only honest people are the artists, & that these social reformers & philanthropists get so out of hand, & harbour so many discreditable desires under the disguise of loving their kind, that in the end there’s more to find fault with in them than in us.<\/p>\nVol. 1 [p.293]<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Ouch! & on the next day and the week after<\/em><\/strong> Woolf remains observant of the hypocrisy of it all; “…the peace at any rate is over” [p.294].  Her entry of Thursday 24th July<\/strong><\/em>, reports Morgan Forster<\/a> as a dinner guest the evening before, and he perplexes and charms her and will visit them in Asheham if they pay his fare (“he has only \u00a326 in the bank”).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was the last diary entry until 7th September<\/strong><\/em>, and the last in this book until 7th October<\/em><\/strong>. After a typically busy Woolf few days, they went to Asheham on 29th July,<\/em><\/strong> and the socialising continued there – Mirrlees coming on the 8 August<\/strong><\/em>, Pernel Strachey and Forster (they obviously paid his train fare!) from 22-25  August<\/em><\/strong>, and a dinner party with Clive & Vanessa, Duncan, Roger Fry, Mary Hutchinson and Maynard on 24th August<\/em><\/strong> – and at Charleston. On 14 August<\/strong><\/em> the Woolfs attended the sale of contents at Monks House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Woolf recorded entries from 7th September through to 1st October<\/strong><\/em> in a new book (and in a new home!) – Diary VIII<\/strong> – before returning to Diary VII in October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DIARY VIII: 7 September 1919-1 October 1919<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Monks House, Rodmell.<\/h5>\n\n\n
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Monk’s House (as it is now), Rodmell, Sussex.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
Amongst the chaos associated with their move from Asheham to Monks House on 1st September 1919<\/em><\/strong>, Virginia reveals the feat of the move being made in one day and all that still has to be done to achieve order, but she is very well pleased with their new abode and surroundings. But on 12th-13th September<\/strong><\/em> she talks suddenly of depression, and to me that seems to follow course with any upheaval in her life – however good it may seem to others. Along with the hectic involved in the new home, there were writing ideas on her mind, publishing issues in America, a return of Vanessa envy – the boisterous family life she would never have. Then in a moment of reflection, almost shame at her discontent, she admits:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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…remember the saying that at one’s lowest ebb one is nearest a true vision. I think perhaps 9 people out of ten never get a day in the year of such happiness as I have almost constantly; now I’m having a turn of their lot.<\/p>\nVol. 1 [p.298]<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
But by the next day<\/em><\/strong> she has seemingly pulled herself together; craving now for the freedom to return to work and the written word and enjoying the first of hundreds, thousands of walks before her in the downs and valleys  she loved so dearly. And the next Sunday, the 21st<\/strong><\/em>, Woolf informs of joining the Lewes public library (for 5\/-) which led to Mrs Humphrey Ward, and the scalpel coming out again! And the next Sunday<\/strong><\/em> is one of isolation – a national railway strike – war rationing returns and there is disquiet amongst the village inhabitants. The Woolfs surreptitiously visit Asheham, but any nostalgia is put to one side and Virginia instead gives a botanical run through of their new garden at Monks House. By Tuesday<\/em><\/strong> there is still no word of an end to the strike, and there is still no post and the papers wildly shrunk and already “old news”, and on Wednesday 1 October<\/em><\/strong> everyone seems to have a different story!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Woolfs returned to Richmond on 6th October, and VW returns to Diary VII<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DIARY ViI (cont.): 20 January 1919-28 December 1919<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Hogarth House, Paradise Road, Richmond.<\/h5>\n\n\n
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Night and Day, George H. Doran, New York, 1920<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
After their return in October,<\/strong><\/em> Virginia contemplates the “settled” life she sees before them at Hogarth, Monks House “& two domestics”. [p. 304] Occupied with reviewing and London jaunts – to Vanessa’s flat, tea at the Club – she is only mildly disconcerted that the prospects of being published in America have dissipated.  On Tuesday 21 October 1919<\/strong><\/em> Night & Day<\/em> was published and she forwarded copies to Vanessa and Clive, Lytton, Morgan and Violet Dickinson, and pondered the chances of it being well-received and perhaps, noting autumn “leaves hanging [<\/em>prophetically!] like rare gold coins on the trees”<\/em>, selling well. In the next days<\/strong><\/em> all  the words of praise from Vanessa, Clive, Lytton and a highly favourable review in the TLS<\/em>, can not quite mitigate the more tepid response from Forster – Morgan it seems is now the one that must be impressed; he the kindred literary spirit. Generally though, she imparts a great sense of relief – Night & Day<\/em> will soon be history and she can move on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thursday 6 November<\/em><\/strong> sees Morgan to dine, and his criticisms of Night & Day <\/strong><\/em>are clarified to Woolf’s satisfaction. Later she says of him:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Morgan has the artists mind; he says the simple things that clever people don’t say; I find him the best of critics for that reason. Suddenly out comes the obvious thing that one has overlooked.<\/p>\nVol. 1 [pp 310-311]<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
A measure of the compatibility between the pair is revealed in Forster’s shared confidence of the writing difficulties he is currently facing, and the footnote suggests that this was probably referring to his struggles with A Passage to India<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
November ends<\/strong><\/em> with some irritations – an end to Leonard’s International Review<\/em> editorship (and the budgeted \u00a3250 p.a.!), the servants giving notice, and what Woolf determines to be a spiteful review of Night & Day<\/em> by KM in the Athenaeum<\/em> (26 November 1919). But, on the brighter side, also there is finally word of an agreement for the American publication of both The Voyage Out<\/em> and Night & Day<\/em> (George H. Doran, New York were to become VW’s first American publishers).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
VW’s last entry for the year is on Sunday 28 December<\/em><\/strong>, and the previous few weeks are explained away by first, Leonard’s illness then her own, and attributed to a prolonged and debilitating influenza. She reveals that she has just read through the year’s diary and intends keeping it up, the servants not going anywhere after all, and they have received advance copies of Leonard’s book (to be published in January 1920), will be off to Monks House tomorrow, and ends with: “We think we now deserve some good luck. Yet I daresay we’re the happiest couple in England.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here ends Volume One (1915-1919) of The Diary of Virginia Woolf <\/em>and is continued in Volume Two covering the years 1920-1924<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Last updated:<\/strong><\/strong> March 19th, 2020. [I VW Diary, 28 December, 1919 p.317]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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As she begins this diary, Virginia Woolf is almost thirty-three years old and still recuperating from an horrendous breakdown following the completion of her first novel, “The Voyage Out”, at the end of 1913; and that this is now, and belatedly, soon to be published. Both Virginia and Leonard are increasingly tormented by the war … Continue reading “Volume One:  1915-1919”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":204,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-269","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stolb01web.ddns.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stolb01web.ddns.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stolb01web.ddns.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stolb01web.ddns.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stolb01web.ddns.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=269"}],"version-history":[{"count":96,"href":"https:\/\/stolb01web.ddns.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18582,"href":"https:\/\/stolb01web.ddns.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/269\/revisions\/18582"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stolb01web.ddns.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stolb01web.ddns.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}