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Books

10 Little Known Facts About Virginia Woolf

virginia woolf

Virginia Woolf — most know the name, but few know the obscure biographical facts behind the name. Below are 10 little known facts about the troubled writer.

 

    •  Woolf once said that her death would be the “one experience I shall never describe.”

 

    • When Woolf taught at Morley College, she made her students write essays about themselves.
Virginia Woolf in her garden at Monk House
    • For a summer, she went mad believing that the birds were chirping in Greek and King Edward VII was saying curses from behind a nearby bush.

 

    • Woolf was a difficult shopper, often arguing with shopkeepers over what products they had for sale and what products she imagined they should have for sale.
Leonard and Virginia Woolf
    • After getting married, Woolf thought she should learn some domestic skills, so she enrolled in a school of cookery. Shortly after, she accidentally baked her wedding ring in a pudding.

 

    • Before Woolf was even 7 years old, her mother, Julia, was teaching her Latin, French, and History.
(L-R) Virginia Woolf, Duncan Grant, Adrian Stephen, Anthony Buxton, Guy Ridley, Horace Cole
    • Woolf and five of her male friends once received a 40-minute tour of the British battleship H.M.S. Dreadnought with the ship’s commander after painting their faces black, dressing in robes, and presenting themselves as the Prince of Abyssinia (now Ethiopia) and his entourage.

 

    • Woolf first tried to kill herself at the age of 22 by jumping out of a window. The window she jumped from, however, was not high enough to cause serious harm.
T.S. Eliot and Virginia Woolf in 1924
    • When Woolf asked T.S. Eliot at a particular dinner party to define his belief in God, Eliot did not answer.

 

    • When Virginia and Leonard Woolf, who together ran the Hogarth Press, received the manuscript of the first chapters of James Joyce’s Ulysses, they turned it down for publication because it was impossible to print the entire book on their handpress.

 

Interested in learning more about Virginia Woolf through her writing?

 

Orlando: A Biography

Author: Virginia Woolf

ISBN: 9780141184272

Price: 24,5 GEL

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Between the Acts

Author: Virginia Woolf

ISBN: 9780141184524

Price: 24,5 GEL

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The Common Reader

Author: Virginia Woolf

ISBN: 9780141389899

Price: 14,9 GEL

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A Room of One’s Own

Author: Virginia Woolf

ISBN: 9780141018980

Price: 14,9 GEL

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Books

Theme of the Week: Virginia Woolf

Adeline Virginia Woolf was an English writer and one of the foremost modernists of the twentieth century.

During the interwar period, Woolf was a significant figure in London literary society and a central figure in the influential Bloomsbury Group of intellectuals. Her most famous works include the novels Orlando (1928), Between the Acts (1941), the short essay The Common Reader (1925) and the book-length essay A Room of One’s Own (1929), with its famous dictum, “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.”

Woolf suffered from severe bouts of mental illness throughout her life, thought to have been the result of what is now termed bipolar disorder and committed suicide by drowning in 1941 at the age of 59.

Please enjoy the clip below of Nicole Kidman’s portrayal of Virginia Woolf from the film The Hours.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tP-Ih1ENGn4

Books

Theme of the Week: Celebrating Authors of December

This week we celebrate authors of the past and present who had birthdays in the month of December. Check them out below.

December-Authors

Row 1: (L-R) Eleanor H. Porter, Jane Austen, Philip K. Dick Row 2: (L-R) Joseph Conrad, Rudyard Kipling

 

Joseph Conrad

(December 3, 1857 – August 3, 1924)

Józef Teodor Konrad, known as his pen name Joseph Conrad, was a Polish author who wrote in English after settling in England. He is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in English. The Secret Agent (1907) was made into a film in 1996.

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Jane Austen

(December 16, 1775 – July 18, 1817)

Austen was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature.  She achieved success as a published writer with the release of Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), Northanger Abbey and Persuasion (1818).

  

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Philip K. Dick     

(December 16, 1928 – March 2, 1982)

Dick was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist and philosopher whose published work is almost entirely accepted as being in the science fiction genre. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968) was made into the very popular 1982 film, Blade Runner.

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Eleanor H. Porter            

(December 19, 1868 – May 21, 1920)

Porter was an American novelist who mainly wrote children’s literature, adventure stories and romance fiction. Her most famous novel is Pollyanna (1913). It was made into a film in 1960.

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Rudyard Kipling     

(December 30, 1865 – January 18, 1936)

Kipling was an English short-story writer, poet, and novelist. In 1907, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, making him the first English-language writer to receive the prize, and its youngest recipient to date. Kipling’s works of fiction include The Jungle Book (1894), The Second Jungle Book (1895), Stalky & Co. (1899), Kim (1901), Just So Stories (1902), Puck of Pook’s Hill (1906) and Rewards and Fairies (1910).

  

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Books

Theme of the Week: Joseph Conrad

Joseph Conrad was a Polish author who wrote in English after settling in England. He was granted British nationality in 1886, but always considered himself a Pole.

Conrad is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in English, though he did not speak the language fluently until he was in his twenties (and always with an accent). He wrote stories and novels, often with nautical settings, which depict trials of the human spirit in the midst of an indifferent universe. He was a master prose stylist who brought a distinctly non-English sensibility into English literature.

Below is a trailer for the film The Secret Agent based on his book of the same name:

Books

Theme of the Week: Rudyard Kipling

rudyard-kipling1

The theme for this week is Rudyard Kipling, an English author, famous for his works,  Just So Stories and The Jungle Book which earned him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907.

Just So Stories, was a in part a tribute to his late daughter, for whom Kipling had originally crafted the stories as he put her to bed. The book’s name had in fact come from Josephine, who told her father he had to repeat each tale as he always had, or “just so,” as Josephine often said.

Below is a link to Rudyard Kipling’s famous poem “If-” spoken by the famous British actor Sir Michael Caine. It is a tribute to Leander Starr Jameson and is written in the form of paternal advice to the poet’s son. As poetry, “If—” is a literary example of Victorian-era stoicism.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWvcwVWCcnY

Books

Theme of the Week: Jane Austen

jane-austen

The theme for this week is about Jane Austen, an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the privileged British social class who lived entirely off rental income (landed gentry), earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature. Her realism, biting irony and social commentary as well as her acclaimed plots have gained her historical importance among scholars and critics.

Austen lived her entire life as part of a close-knit family located on the lower fringes of the English landed gentry. She was educated primarily by her father and older brothers as well as through her own reading. The steadfast support of her family was critical to her development as a professional writer.

Enjoy two film trailers adapted from Austen’s most popular novels, Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice.

Sense and Sensibility:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns17RQr1yK8

 

Pride and Prejudice:

Books

Theme of the Week: Celebrating Authors of November

This week we celebrate authors of the past and present who had birthdays in the month of November. Check them out below.

november authors3

Row 1: (L-R) Adeline Yen Mah, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Leander Kahney, Albert Camus Row 2: (L-R) Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Mark Twain, Winston Churchill, David Nicholls Row 3: (L-R) Roger Lancelyn Green, Jonathan Swift, L. M. Montgomery, Luke Rhinehart Row 4: (L-R) George Eliot, Robert Louis Stevenson, Bram Stoker, Richelle Mead

Albert Camus

(November 7, 1913 – January 4, 1960)

Camus was a French Nobel Prize winning author, journalist, and philosopher. He was awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize for Literature “for his important literary production, which with clear-sighted earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience in our times.”

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Mark Twain

(November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910)

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. He wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), The Prince and the Pauper (1881) and Tom Sawyer’s sequel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885).

  huck

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Bram Stoker 

(November 8, 1847 – April 20, 1912)

Stoker was an Irish author known today for his 1897 Gothic novel, Dracula.

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Fyodor Dostoyevsky

(November 11, 1821 – February 9, 1881)

Dostoyevsky was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist, journalist and philosopher. Dostoyevsky’s literary works explore human psychology in the context of the troubled political, social, and spiritual atmosphere of 19th-century Russia. The Double was made into a film in 2013.

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Luke Rhinehart

(November 15, 1932 – )

George Cockcroft, known by his pen name Luke Rhinehart, is an American writer, most notable as the author of The Dice Man series.

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Richelle Mead

(November 12, 1976 – )

Mead is a bestselling American fantasy author. She is known for the Georgina Kincaid series, Vampire Academy. It was made into a film in 2014.

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Leander Kahney

(November 25, 1965 – )

Kahney is a technology writer and author. He is a former managing editor, and previously a senior reporter, at ‘Wired News’, the online sister publication of ‘Wired’.

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Winston Churchill

(November 30, 1874 – January 24, 1965)

Churchill was a British politician and Nobel laureate who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. Widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the 20th century, Churchill was also an officer in the British Army, a historian, a writer and an artist. Churchill is the only British Prime Minister to have won the Nobel Prize in Literature since its creation in 1901, and was the first person to be made an honorary citizen of the United States.

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Roger Lancelyn Green

(November 2, 1918 – October 8, 1987)

Green was a British biographer who became known primarily for his writings for children, particularly his retellings of the stories of King Arthur, King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table, and Robin Hood, The Adventures of Robin Hood.

 

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Adeline Yen Mah

(November 30, 1937 – )

Mah is a Chinese-American author and physician. Chinese Cinderella: The Secret Story of an Unwanted Daughter describes her experiences growing up in China during the Second World War.

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Jonathan Swift

(November 30, 1667 – October 19, 1745)

Swift was an Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, poet and cleric who is remembered for such work as Gulliver’s Travels.

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George Eliot

(November 22, 1819 – December 22, 1880)

Mary Ann Evans, known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, journalist, translator and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She is the author of several novels, including The Mill on the Floss (1860), Silas Marner (1861)  and Middlemarch (1871–72), most of them set in provincial England and known for their realism and psychological insight.

 9780141198910.jpg (258×400) 

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Robert Louis Stevenson

(November 13, 1850 – December 3, 1894)

Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer. His most famous works are Treasure Island, Kidnapped and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

  

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David Nicholls

(November 30, 1966 – )

Nicholls is an English novelist and screenwriter. His book, One Day, was turned into a film in 2011.

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Frances Hodgson Burnett

(November 24, 1849 – October 29, 1924)

Burnett was an English playwright and author. She is best known for her children’s stories, in particular Little Lord Fauntleroy (1885-86) and The Secret Garden (1911). Both were made into films.

 

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L. M. Montgomery

(November 30, 1874 – April 24, 1942)

Montgomery was a Canadian author best known for a series of novels beginning with Anne of Green Gables, published in 1908. Anne of Green Gables was an immediate success.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Books

Theme of the Week: Mark Twain

mark-twain-with-pipe1

The theme for this week is going to about Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. He wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn the latter often called “the Great American Novel”.

Twain grew up in Hannibal, Missouri, which provided the setting for the Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer novels.

Twain was born shortly after a visit by Halley’s Comet, and he predicted that he would “go out with it”, too. He died the day following the comet’s subsequent return.

He was lauded as the “greatest American humorist of his age” and William Faulkner called Twain “the father of American literature”.

Enjoy a short video introducing you to Mark Twain’s home and museum!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5yClCgUp38

Books

Theme of the Week: Frances Hodgson Burnett

francisburnett1

The theme for this week is about Frances Hodgson Burnett, who was an English-American playwright and author. She is best known for her children’s stories, in particular Little Lord Fauntleroy and The Secret Garden.

Little Lord Fauntleroy and The Secret Garden have had many film adaptations, plays and musicals made from them since publication.

Enjoy the trailer of The Secret Garden film:

And enjoy a clip from the 1936 film version of Little Lord Fauntleroy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRZ_YDGw7Rg

Books

Theme of the Week: Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Dostoyevsky2

Fyodor Dostoyevsky was a Russian novelist in nineteenth century Russia. Although he was of Russian descent and his works primarily examined the lives of Russians in his time period, his works have left an indelible mark over Western literature and world literature. In addition to writing novels, Dostoyevsky also wrote essays and short stories. One such novel, The Double, was turned into a film in 2013.

Here is a clip from the very interesting film, The Double.