Virginia Woolf

October 2, 2000
While most of Virginia Woolf's biographers (with the possible exception of her nephew Quentin Bell) bond with their subject through her vivid diaries and fiction, Nicolson (Portrait of a Marriage), the son of Woolf's lover Vita Sackville-West, draws on family archives and first-hand experience for his brisk, dutiful biography. For the young Nicolson, Woolf first appeared as a lively and amusing visitor. Not yet famous, to Nicolson she was like "a favourite aunt who brightened our simple lives with unexpected questions." Visiting Vita's stately home, Woolf might ask the young Nigel, "What's it like to be a child?" by way of research for To the Lighthouse, or she might make up histories for unidentified ancestral portraits as background for Orlando, her love-letter fantasy to Vita. Such personal glimpses enliven Nicolson's respectful position between various, often hotly contended views of Woolf as writer, feminist and Bloomsburian. Despite his insider's knowledge, which is nonetheless welcome, Nicolson manages to offer an objective perspective on Woolf's parents and siblings and on her childhood and youth. He is, however, less sensational than was Quentin Bell on her mental illness and the notorious early episodes when one of her half brothers examined her genitalia and the other forced his affections on her. Nicolson filters Woolf's writing career through Vita--and her opinions: she delighted in Orlando and was exasperated with the hyperbolic polemics of Three Guineas, the 1938 pacificist tract that was her penultimate work before her suicide. The world is no doubt weary of Woolf biographies, but this tidy and homely little introduction will sell to readers who may have been too intimidated by Woolf's modernist reputation to broach her life and work before. 3-city author tour.

December 20, 2000
As the volumes of Virginia Woolf scholarship continue to multiply, literary detectives are beginning to grasp at straws. Recent studies have blamed the tragic circumstances of Woolf's life on childhood trauma and sexual abuse (Peter Dally's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, LJ 11/1/99) and even eating disorders (Allie Glenny's Ravenous Identity, LJ 2/1/00). Given that Woolf herself left behind perhaps one of the most complete and insightful diaries ever written by a novelist, all the fuss seems speculative at best, condescending at worst. The latest twist is Coates's theory that Leonard Woolf was responsible for his wife's insanity and suicide. Coates, a playwright, arrogantly presumes to know why Woolf behaved the way she did, writing, for instance, with cloying certainty: "Mental breakdown was her method of freeing herself from other people's attitudes." Leonard's apologists, Coates notes, credit him with his unflinching support of his wife during 30 years of creativity interspersed with bouts of terrifying madness (posthumously diagnosed as manic depression). Coates has Leonard "gaslighting" Virginia (driving her insane), disregarding the fact that she suffered her first breakdown years before she met Leonard. Buy only for larger literature collections. In contrast, the newest addition to the excellent "Penguin Lives" series is by Nicholson (Portrait of a Marriage), the son of Vita Sackville-West, one of Woolf's lovers. In this beautifully written literary biography, Nicholson interweaves childhood memories of time spent with Woolf with in-depth analyses of her novels, showing, for instance, how he may have been a model for the character of James in Mrs. Dalloway. While Nicholson's personal stake in Woolf's memory lends an intimate quality to his portrait, he does not allow his fond recollections to cloud his view of his subject's troubled life. He describes Leonard as an imperfect man perpetually walking on eggshells. Nicholson does what Coates does not: pay tribute to a great artist by showing that her work gave her whatever fleeting peace she may have experienced in her lifetime: "Pain was relieved, and pleasure doubled, by recording it." His effort is highly recommended for all libraries. [Nicholson's work was previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/15/00.]--Diane Gardner Premo, Rochester P.L., NY

Copyright 2000 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2000
Woolf entered Nicolson's life when she and his mother, the writer Vita Sackville-West, fell in love, precipitating Woolf's only extramarital affair and inspiring " Orlando" (1928), the book that made her famous. An elegant stylist in his own right and one of the editors of Woolf's letters, Nicolson, whose boyhood recollections remain startlingly vivid, presents a unique perspective on Woolf and the now legendary world of Bloomsbury, recounting highly amusing conversations with the unpredictable woman he thought of as a "favorite aunt," and sharing insider information including the fact that she baked good bread. But he has more serious missions in mind, such as dismantling the myths associated with Woolf's childhood, accurately depicting her marriage and bouts with madness, and celebrating not only her transcendent novels but her prolific output as a journalist and the impact of Hogarth Press, an endeavor to which she and her husband were extraordinarily devoted. Nicolson's superb addition to the remarkable Penguin Lives series offers a deeply personal, compelling, and indelible likeness of one of the most fascinating and influential writers of all times.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2000, American Library Association.)