Hello All

[Mark Kohut]

*To the Lighthouse* is the (only) one that was liked by the canonizers of
her time---such as Leavis and Scrutiny mag---EVEN when she was dismissed
for triviality in subjects and themes and formlessness as an artist for all
of her other work-- by them and most other critics of the times. Read
Forster, the famous novel arguer on her. Her 'friend' T.S. Eliot. Clueless
Americans.

It is culturally interesting to learn of the steady rise of her reputation.
In a preface to an older--but still much later than the original--US
edition of To The Lighthouse, Leonard Woolf [remember, they published most
of her work themselves] sez it sold @11.5 thousand copies initially, fell
and plateaued for lots of years then gives the sales for the last three
years of the sixties, which totaled 6-7 times that 11.5 figure and rose
every year of the three. Quentin Bell's first major biography was being
worked on then, literary England knew that [it was published in 1972]; new
and fuller critical perspectives started happening in the sixties. Sales
rose even higher and more steadily after Bell's bio. She was hot.

Some think* The Waves* may be her deepest and most original; others think
its originality doesn't work coherently. I haven't read that one yet. Her
diaries grow in reputation as well for the honesty, subtlety,  perceptions
and speculations but art is not usually a term reserved for diaries, just
sayin'.

Just as art is not usually reserved for even a long extended essay such as *A
Room of One's Own,* which is good, of course, fascinating and diary-like in
being factual and speculative, but to me (and most, I think) is simply too
linear, too essayistic to resonate with the depths of her major fiction. It
became a kind of feminist manifesto because of the major insight: there are
few(er) women writers than men in history and the present because of all of
the women's work they have to do. Writing on herself and on 'Shakespeare's
sister' and other writers shows the interesting intelligence of her
lifelong reading and thinking. A room means time to write in it too. As the
decades roll on, I think it will resume it's more minor place in her oeuvre
imho.

By the time of Hermione Lee's GREAT biography. late eighties or 90s--I say
that on just reading the opening 20-30 pages so far and holding until I've
read more of the primary work--Ms Lee can say and does that Woolf can be
"endlessly" read and reread like only the greatest writers. Shakespeare
perhaps most famously, Austen, etc. It's now virtually unanimous.

if I get it together i have a post on how *Jacob's Room* reminds me in ways
of *GR*, if just a little. I am loving this book, the first one where she
risked her whole originality in a new way of writing a novel, and it is
warmer, fresher and brighter
than *To The Lighthouse*--and maybe deeper than the bright *Mrs. Dalloway.*











On Thu, Dec 29, 2016 at 7:20 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:

> I think everyone agrees that "To the Lighthouse" is her masterwork, but
> some would say "A Room of One's Own" is her best work.  I've only read the
> former, and I loved it.
>
> David Morris
>
> On Thu, Dec 29, 2016 at 6:00 PM, Johnny Marr <marrja at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Season's greetings
>>
>> Which Woolf were you reading?
>>
>> Looks like we'll have big news in Britain (at least big news for Britons)
>> tomorrow...
>>
>> On Thursday, December 29, 2016, Keith Davis <kbob42 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> I once played in Albert's Hall for a week with Matt "Guitar"
>>> Murphy...long ago.
>>> Cheers...
>>>
>>> On Wed, Dec 28, 2016 at 10:54 PM, Mark Thibodeau <jerkyleboeuf at gmail.com
>>> > wrote:
>>>
>>>> Happy New Year to you, Keith! If you ever come to Toronto for a
>>>> performance, I'd love to attend.
>>>>
>>>> If any of you have a few minutes to waste, check out my blog. I've
>>>> been updating daily recently.
>>>>
>>>> www.dailydirtdiaspora.blogspot.com
>>>>
>>>> Cheers!
>>>> Jerky
>>>>
>>>> On Wed, Dec 28, 2016 at 10:46 PM, Keith Davis <kbob42 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> > Hope you're all having as nice a holiday season as I am.
>>>> >
>>>> > Tried Virginia Woolf, but found myself too impatient at the moment,
>>>> which
>>>> > doesn't mean I won't get to it. Started Shadow Country three times
>>>> before it
>>>> > became one of my all-time favorite reads.
>>>> >
>>>> > However, I am deeply into A Naked Singularity. What a great book!
>>>> Thanks to
>>>> > whoever it was who recommended it here. Seems like several of you...
>>>> >
>>>> > Thanks for the TV and movie recommendations, as well.
>>>> >
>>>> > Drowning Mona is classic.
>>>> >
>>>> > Happy Holidays!
>>>> >
>>>> > --
>>>> > www.innergroovemusic.com
>>>> >
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> www.innergroovemusic.com
>>>
>>>
>
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