The Diaries of Virginia Woolf

Anne Olivier Bell really did an outstanding job editing the diaries of Virginia Woolf. Ms Bell spent ten years of her life working on these diaries. The last volume was published in 1984.

The footnotes added so much to the diaries. I appreciated that Ms Bell put the footnotes in the body of the diary, and not in appendices at the end of the book. It was so much easier to read the footnotes without having to turn to end notes at the back of the book.  The footnotes were so enjoyable; some days I would simply read the footnotes and nothing else.

It is absolutely amazing how such a small group of artists, writers, philosophers, many of them influenced by Bloomsbury, were in her circle, not the least of which: James Joyce, T. S. Eliot, Sigmund Freud, Roger Fry, John Maynard Keynes, Rebecca West, Rose Macaulay, and then through her husband, Leonard, the politicians and statesmen. In literature, it seemed to be a golden age that will never be experienced again.

Likewise, the index is very, very complete.

I wanted to read Virginia Woolf's diaries for three reasons: 1) anyone who wants to consider himself knowledgeable about Virginia Woolf must read the diaries; 2) I wanted to read in VW's own words her thoughts on her works; and 3) I was curious if she would write about current events. I was pleasantly surprised. Many modern diarists fail to mention world events as if they are in a bubble, separate from the world. Virginia Woolf did not disappoint. She wrote about the events preceding WWII and then wrote about the blitz on London. The notes were short, but they were prescient and, once the war began, very, very personal and very topical. As I read her notes, I thought of Graham Greene with his mistress in London and his wife in the countryside (as was Viriginia Woolf).

I guess I'm back in my Virginia Woolf stage. I completed Volume 5 of her diaries over weeks of  breakfasts; I am reading Panthea Reid's biography of Virginia Woolf (c. 1996) before I fall asleep; and am ready to attack The Waves again. About a year ago I typed The Waves from start to finish knowing that was the only way it would keep my interest. It's a hard book to read; even she was aware of that, but that's what makes it so much fun.