A Room of One's Own

About the Author

Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) was an English novelist, essayist, publisher, and critic who became one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century. Born Adeline Virginia Stephen into an affluent intellectual family in London, she was educated at home by her father, Sir Leslie Stephen, a notable historian and editor. Throughout her life, Woolf suffered from periodic mental illness, now believed to have been bipolar disorder. In 1912, she married writer Leonard Woolf, and together they founded the Hogarth Press in 1917, which published much of her work. As a central figure in the influential Bloomsbury Group of intellectuals, she played a significant role in London's literary and artistic society. Woolf pioneered the stream-of-consciousness narrative technique in novels such as 'Mrs. Dalloway' (1925), 'To the Lighthouse' (1927), and 'The Waves' (1931), revolutionizing the form of the novel. Her feminist writings, particularly 'A Room of One's Own' (1929) and 'Three Guineas' (1938), established her as an important voice in gender politics. On March 28, 1941, while suffering from a period of depression exacerbated by the onset of World War II, Woolf filled her pockets with stones and drowned herself in the River Ouse near her home in Sussex. Her works continue to be studied for their innovative narrative methods, feminist perspectives, and profound psychological insights.