Women Before Their Time
Virginia Wolf (Part 2)
“To write, or read, or think, or to enquire,
Would cloud our beauty, and exhaust our time,
And interrupt the conquests of our prime.
Whilst the dull manage of a servile house
Is held by some of our utmost art and use.”
In ‘A Room of One’s Own’, Woolf writes about women writers in history, like Lady Winchilsea and Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, who were deemed eccentric or odd because they chose to write and publish rather than devoting their time in more feminine pursuits. At a time when women authors published anonymously or under a nom de plume, by choosing to be open about their writing, they left themselves open to public scorn, ridicule, and suspicion; more scholarly writing was believed to have been written by their husbands. The only acceptable writing for a female in the 1600s was letter writing, and these intrepid ladies expressed their frustrations and increasing bitterness about the intolerable conditions they were subjected to because of the pursuit of their craft. However, both ladies were well born, independently wealthy, childless and had the full support of their loving husbands. Their conditions were considerably better than most women at the time, which was one reason they were able to write at all.
Likewise, Virginia Woolf was born into one of the most prominent families in Victorian England. In addition, her father Sir Leslie Stephen was a famous scholar, philosopher, and essayist. With his wealth, social standing and presence in art and culture, the Stephen home was often a meeting place for leading artists, writers and thinkers of the day. Though she was not given formal University education like her brothers, Virginia and her sister were educated at home and given access to their father’s remarkably comprehensive library, as well as being exposed to the keen mind of their father and his artistic friends. Virginia, however, was always resentful of not being given the same University opportunity as her brothers, so made an even greater effort in her studies and perfecting her craft.
Also, like Lady Winchilsea and Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Woolf never had any children and was fortunate enough to be married to a kind and loving man who fully supported and encouraged her writing. With her husband Leonard, she founded a small publishing house, the Hogarth Press. It was a small but very important press, which went on to eventually publish the works of their friends Katherine Mansfield, T.S. Eliot, E. M. Forster and of course Virginia Woolf herself.
