Virginia Woolf and the French Renaissance

The Diary Volume 4 Saturday 25 April, 1931

This excerpt from Virginia's diary describes a visit to the castle of Montaigne a French Renaissance philosopher and writer and an early essayist.

>"A woman came. Took us up narrow stone steps, worn; opened thick nail studded door. This is his bedroom; this is his dressing room. Here he died. Here he went down - he was very small - to chapel. Upstairs again is his library. The books & furniture are at Bordeaux. Here is his chair & table. He wrote those inscriptions on the beams. Sure enough it was his room; a piece of an old modern chair may be his."

It is interesting to see tghat Virginia could also be a literary tourist, so would understand the fixation many of her followers have for looking at where she, herself, lived and wrote.

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A New Vision of Death - Indescribable

The Diary Volume 3, Tuesday 23 November 1926

"Life is as I've said since I was 10, awfully interesting - if anything, quicker, keener at 44 than 24 - more desperate I suppose, as the river shoots to Niagara - my new vision of death; active, positive, like all the rest, exciting; & of great importance - as an experience. 'The one experience I shall never describe', I said to Vita yesterday."

Of course that last statement is a truth. You can not describe your own death.

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Walking on the Downs

The Diary Volume 3, 5 September 1926

"Then, I am extremely happy walking on the downs. I don't want to be talking to Eddy at Charleston. I like to have space to spread my mind out in."

Virginia Woolf was a great walker and we see this many times in the Diaries. The walking allowed her to exercise her mind as well as her body. I have been impressed in reading this volume of how busy Virginia's life was. There appears to be a steady stream of visitors some wanted and some a nuisance. This social "noise" weighed heavily on Virginia and the chance to get away from it all and walk on the Downs was a great relief.

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Virginia Woolf - The Married Relation

The Diary Volume 3 - Monday 2 August 1926

"Arnold Bennett says that the horror of marriage lies in its 'dailiness'. All acuteness of relationship is rubbed away by this. the truth is more like this. Life - say 4 days out of 7 - becomes automatic; but on the 5th day a bead of sensation (between husband & wife) forms, wh. is all the fuller & more sensitive because of the automatic customary unconscious days on either side. That is to say the year is marked by moments of great intensity. Hardy's 'moments of vision'. How can a relationship endure for any length of time except under these conditions?."

I concur with Woolf rather than Bennett on this one. Having been married for over 36 years myself I have experienced both the automatic customary and unconscious days as well as the moments of great intensity. DK

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Virginia Woolf a Breakdown quote

The Diary Volume 3 - Saturday 31 July 1926

"Thought of my own power of writing with veneration, as of something incredible, belonging to someone else; never again to be enjoyed by me."

This was written during a nervous breakdown in miniature as she describes it. There is a level of psychological dissociation contained in this passage.

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Virginia Woolf on H.G. Wells - Drowsy at 60

The Diary Volume 3 - Sunday 4 July 1926

Then Wells came again; & stayed till 4, when he had to meet an American. He is getting to the drowsy stage: the 60s. Seems well wishing but not so spry as he used to be. He talked about his new book, the thoughts one has at 60."

This is an interesting observation and one that today seems out of place. Today's 60 year olds are a more vibrant breed. Woolf in her late 40s was already considering herself to be getting old. As a fit and active 57 year old myself I do not anticipate being drowsy at 60, though I do remember that my grandparents appeared to be very old at that age.

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