An Animated Introduction to Virginia Woolf

It’s a pity writer Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) drowned herself before the advent of the Internet.

Industrialization did not faze her.

It’s less clear how the great observer of “the Modern Age” would’ve responded to the proliferation of Mommy bloggers.

Their sheer numbers suggest that perhaps female writers do not need a “room of one’s own” (though presumably all of them would be in favor of such a development.)

Woolf’s name is an enduring one, inspiring both the title of a classic American play and a doggy day care facility. Its owner passed away nearly 75 years ago, yet she remains a perennial on Women’s Studies’ syllabi.

Ergo, it’s possible for the general public to know of her, without knowing much of anything about her and her work. (Find her major works on our lists of Free eBooks and Free Audio Books).

The latest animated installment in The School of Life humanities series seeks to remedy that situation in ten minutes with the video above, which offers insight into her place in both the Western canon and the ever-glamorous Bloomsbury Group, and celebrates her as a keen observer of life’s daily routine. And that by-now-familiar cut-out animation style takes full advantage of the author’s best known head shots.

Arrange whatever pieces come your way.

– Virginia Woolf

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Virginia Woolf’s Handwritten Suicide Note: A Painful and Poignant Farewell (1941)

Ayun Halliday is an author, illustrator, and Chief Primatologist of the East Village Inky zine. Follow her @AyunHalliday