Imagining Virginia Woolf: An Experiment in Critical Biography

Acknowledgments ix THE DEMON OF READING Chapter 1. The Figment of the Author 3 Chapter 2. Personalities 14 WOOLF'S PERSONALITIES Chapter 3. The Sibyl of the Drawing Room 41 Chapter 4. The Author 64 Chapter 5. The Critic 92 Chapter 6. The World Writer 119 Chapter 7. The Adventurer 140 EPILOGUE Chapter 8. Anon Once More 169 Notes 173 Index 191

Maria DiBattista is professor of English and comparative literature at Princeton University. Her books include "Virginia Woolf's Major Novels" and "Fast-Talking Dames".

DiBatistta (Fast-Talking Dames) pieces together a portrait of Virginia Woolf as experienced by readers... For general fans of literary criticism or of Woolf's writing in particular, DiBattista's experiment will offer an intriguing perspective on Woolf's relationship to her art and her audience. -- Publishers Weekly Like Anne Fernald's Virginia Woolf: Feminism and the Reader, DiBattista's study extends understanding not only of Woolf's craft and intellectual life but also of reading practices in general. -- Choice What interests Maria DiBattista is not who Woolf actually was--the flesh and blood woman--but the multiple personalities that emanate from her books. Reading a writer familiar to us is, in many ways, no different from seeing people we know, she says. In both cases, the person we think we know is a composite of the various facets of them we have glimpsed. -- Fiona Capp, The Age [W]hen people ask me about biographies about Woolf, I will recommend this one. Certainly, it cannot replace the more traditional biographies DiBattista acknowledges in her introduction, but it is an important supplement to them. My own understanding of the traditional biographies is more nuanced, a result of reading DiBattista's book. -- Molly Youngkin, English Literature in Transition [T]his short book is full of insights... I recommend it to you; it is a pleasure to read. -- Stuart N. Clarke, Virginia Woolf Bulletin