My Virginia Woolf Collection | Fiction, Essays, Diaries

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@ToReadersItMayConcern 9 ай бұрын

This is so nice to see-I adore Virginia Woolf(!), with her playfulness and toying and wandering (she is perhaps the greatest wanderer-wonderer). And your thoughts match my own throughout-your description of Jacob's Room a better summation than I could muster. But I've yet to think of reading her diaries. You suggest she weaves threads of her life into her novels. That sounds wonderful, so now you've given me another direction to head with Virginia Woolf, and that is a priceless gift. [What a coincidence that we both released videos today that mention Virginia Woolf and feature descriptions of Modernism and Postmodernism.]

@brenboothjones 9 ай бұрын

Ah man you made my day with this comment! Thank you so much. I’m subscribed to your channel but your new video didn’t pop up on my feed! Going to watch it now!

@ToReadersItMayConcern 9 ай бұрын

@@brenboothjones You know, that same thing happened to me with your vid: I clicked on your channel because I wanted to make sure I properly tagged you and that's how I noticed your new video. KZbin can be finicky with pushing things out, but that's okay, we'll just keep delivering the goods. My output today is split between two vids, so maybe that messed things up more, too.

@circleofleaves2676 8 ай бұрын

Her letters are also wonderful to read. I find that she's even more playful with her language in her letters, than in her diaries.

@Noortjestortelder 9 ай бұрын

Super nice to see And hear Inspired to read more of her 🎉

@brenboothjones 9 ай бұрын

❤️

@circleofleaves2676 8 ай бұрын

When you said you realised you didn't have The Waves with you, I gasped in an empathetic "noooo" sort of way. Not only is it my favourite Woolf novel, it's my favourite book of all time. I've read it a bunch of times. It's an interesting experience re-reading some of her books at different phases of our lives. I first read all of her novels in my early 20's. I'm 45 now. I read them in random order, and have re-read a few over the years. In 2022 I decided to re-read all of her novels in order of publication, so starting with The Voyage Out and finishing with Between the Acts. I ugly-sobbed on my re-read of To The Lighthouse, because of how I related to it at this phase of life. I'm a tad obsessed, and my books either by or about Virginia Woolf now extends to about 60 books - two whole shelves full in my library. I treated myself last year, and got a first edition of The Waves, in purple cloth bound by The Hogarth Press, and then I got a copy of Street Haunting signed by Virginia Woolf. Another interesting thing about Jacob's Room is that it was the first of her novels published by the Hogarth Press, which was just one element that allowed her to experiment with form. Strachey is pronounced "STRAY-chee" (with a 'ch' sound as in 'cheese')

@mikeinbostonma9990 9 ай бұрын

I really enjoyed this video! It was like sitting in an elective graduate class - and I mean that as a high compliment! It's been years since I read Woolf, so I just took down my copies of "To the Lighthouse" and "Mrs. Dalloway" and plan to re-read them shortly. I've never read her Diary, and it sounds so enticing. Thanks for posting this today!

@brenboothjones 9 ай бұрын

Gosh, thank you so much! I’ll take the compliment for sure ;) the diaries are fascinating!

@reneelifetapestry 9 ай бұрын

I really enjoyed this video's deep dive into Virginia Woolf. Bren had some really interesting points about her writing style and recurring themes that I hadn't considered before. His enthusiasm was infectious, and the way he highlighted specific passages from the books was fantastic! If you're a fan of Woolf, or interested in learning more, you won't be disappointed.

@brenboothjones 9 ай бұрын

Ah wow thank you so much Renee! You should start a channel too!

@lauramasiar6649 9 ай бұрын

So glad to have found your channel! I’ve dipped into a few of Woolf’s works but not very deeply-I was thinking about starting with Mrs. Dalloway and then going back to her earlier works before working my way up to Orlando. Reading Sylvia Plath’s diaries really rounded out my experience while reading some of her work, so I’ll have to check out Woolf’s diaries as well! Looking forward to more videos.

@brenboothjones 9 ай бұрын

Thank you so much! Mrs Dalloway was my starting point too. I have vol 2 of Plath’s diaries but haven’t read the first volume. Love the dark intensity of her poems. I think I’ll make a Plath video at some point. She is endlessly re-readable.

@lauramasiar6649 9 ай бұрын

@@brenboothjones Yes!! I highly recommend her new biography that came out a few years ago, “Red Comet.” It weaves her history with journal entries and her poetry.

@circleofleaves2676 8 ай бұрын

Orlando is wonderful. It can be read as is, without additional context, but it really helps to understand some of the context and references within the novel, which adds to the reading experience. It's important to realise that as well as being experimental in form, it's a mock-biography of Virginia's friend and lover, fellow author Vita Sackville-West. Because Vita was a woman, she could never inherit Knole. Virginia immortalised Knole for her throughout the book (Knole is the inspiration for the 'castle' that was Orlando's home), and the romp through the centuries is also in part a tribute to the generations of history of that place. Vita was a masculine-presenting gay woman. The character of Marmaduke Bonthrop Shelmerdine, or "Shel", is a portrayal of Harold Nicholson, Vita's husband, who was also gay. Within their supportive marriage, they were both free to be their authentic selves and have love affairs of their preference. They had mutual acceptance and genuine respect for one another and it was a good arrangement. The relationship between Orlando and Shel was a nod to that relationship. The playing around with gender within the novel reflects the sexuality (though gender and sexuality aren't the same thing) and gender expression of both Vita/Orlando and Harold/Shel and the societal norms and expectations of the time. We of course have better awareness and terms for all things within queer culture these days and if Virginia was alive today she most likely would have written things a bit differently. But it was ahead of its time, at the time. Virginia turned a confronting event in real life (Vita going off with another woman) into art, by writing Orlando, escaping being overwhelmed by an experience where others were worried for her. She channelled loss into genius.

@brenboothjones 8 ай бұрын

@@circleofleaves2676 well said! Will be reading both Orlando and Sackville-West’s The Edwardians in my new video series on the first 1000 Penguins.