Virginia Woolf's only autobiographical writing is to be found in this
collection of five unpublished pieces. Despite Quentin bell's comprehensive
biography and numerous recent studies of her, the author's account of her
early life hold's new fascination - for its unexpected detail, the strength
of its emotion, and its clear- sighted judgement of Victorian values.In
'reminiscences' Virginia Woolf focuses on the death of her mother, the
greatest disaster that could happen, and its effect on her father, the
demanding patriarch who took a high toll of the women in his household. She
surveys some of the same ground in A Sketch of the Past, the most
important memoir in this collection, which she wrote greater detachment and
supreme command her art shortly before her death. Readers will be struck by
the extent to which she drew on these early experiences for her novels, as
she tells how she drew on these early experiences for her novels, as she
tells how she exorcised the obsessive presence of her mother by writing to
the lighthouseThe last three papers were composed to be read to memoir
club, a postwar regrouping of Bloomsbury, which exacted absolute candour of
its members. Virginia Woolf contributions were but only bold but also
original and amusing. She describes George Duckworth's passionate efforts
to launch the Stephen girls; gives her own version of Old Bloomsbury;
and, with wit and some malice, reflects on her connections with titled
society.