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In Night and Day, set in 1910, Virginia Woolf writes explicitly of the  suffrage campaign. She places the office of her suffrage society, the 'S.G.S.', in the heart of Bloomsbury, in Russell Square. Mary Datchet works there ('From ten to six every day') in an office on the top-floor of a large house 'which had once been lived in by a great city merchant and his family'.

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Lawrence responds to an ad for a room in a house near the New England university where he studies accounting and is taken into the living room to meet its eccentric inhabitants, self-professed intellectuals, in the midst of a discussion about Virginia Woolf:

“I don’t care what you say. The Voyage Out was Woolf’s most groundbreaking work.”

“Are you high?”

“Not anymore.”

“Every Virginia Woolf scholar worth her salt knows that Mrs. Dalloway is her epic success.”

“To the Lighthouse.”

“Oh, please. How clichéd. Your literary opinions embarrass you and your sweet little library degree.”

“The scholars agree! To the Lighthouse revolutionized the modern novel. The Voyage Out was by far Woolf’s least brilliant novel.”

“According to you. Have you ever had an original thought, or do you just read the criticism of others to develop your theories?”

And so it goes, until they notice Lawrence and someone asks his opinion of Woolf’s greatest masterpiece. Lawrence: “Woolf, Woolf … I strained to recall syllabi from my one or two undergraduate literature classes, to no avail. ‘Well…’ I finally improvised. ‘They were all pretty good, weren’t they?’

The story veers off from there into some pretty bizarre territory, well beyond talk, and while Woolf doesn’t make any more appearances, I think she would have approved of the proceedings.

Summer’s coming–here’s one to take to the beach and read in a single outing (but don’t forget the sunscreen).

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It will be on stage for one night only, May 31, at Compass Theatre, Glebe Avenue, Ickenham, London. It is part of Hillingdon Artsweek 2013. Additional performances may be added later, according to the author.

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• Virginia Woolf Summer Events (peejaywbn.wordpress.com)

Reblogged from ~Musings of a restless mind & an inspired spirit~:

One of my favorite books is Virginia Woolf's "A Room of One's Own". I read this book several years ago for the first time and it left quite an impression on me. The summary of it was that everyone needs their own space to create. I always have a creative space. I have found over the years that sometimes that can be challenging.

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Reblogged from Shine On:

If you haven’t walked in her steps through England — or even if you have — this is a great way to get an up-close look at the Woolfs’ longtime home.

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Reblogged from Flavorwire:

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These days, almost all works of literature are written on computers -- from their first inklings, saved in a document called "notes," to their final, emailed-out drafts -- and even, increasingly, read on them. In such a climate, we are even more fascinated by the handwritten drafts and original manuscripts of classic literature, from which much can be inferred via handwriting, paper choice, and strength of pen marks.

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I read Barker’s Life Class around that time before I knew it was the prequel to Toby’s Room, and I posted on the “near sightings,” the Bloomsbury references when the protagonist, Slade art student Elinor Brooke, has tea at Ottoline Morrell’s.

Elinor’s brother Toby, like Jacob before him, dies serving in World War I, and like Jacob is revealed mostly through family and friends. Toby’s Room is still Elinor’s story, in which she seeks to unearth the mysterious details of his death. Woolf appears in entries from Elinor’s diary. She records her impressions from a weekend at Charleston Farmhouse, presumably at the invitation of Vanessa Bell:

“VB was in the drawing room when I arrived, with her sister, Mrs. Woolf. I’ve met her more than once, though I don’t think she remembered me and gave me a lukewarm welcome. Doesn’t like young women, I suspect. I thought the talk would be well above my head, but they were quite relaxed and gossipy and we chatted on easily enough. Or they did. I was too nervous to say much. It was like listening to an old married couple. They’ve got that habit of completing each other’s sentences…”

The other guests are “the conscientiously objecting young men” working at the farm, none of whom, she realizes, are going to be interested in her. There’s talk of the war at dinner, and Woolf talks about “how women are outside the political process and therefore the war’s got nothing to do with them.”

Elinor is struck by Woolf’s observation but finds it less convincing when she later tries to echo the sentiment herself. Barker has no such problem making her case. In both novels, she challenges readers to explore the role of art and artists in time of war, heightening the drama with real, fictional and hybrid characters as she did in her Regeneration trilogy.

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• Pat Barker’s Life Class (rereadproject.wordpress.com)

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2. Woolf’s Orlando on stage at USM, The Portland Phoenix
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   But in Jake Arnott’s novel House of Rumour it becomes the focal point for a secret history that’s stranger and more elaborate than just “What if the Nazis won?” Arnott weaves figures like L. Ron Hubbard and Virginia Woolf into a quasi-mystical tale.
7. Daphne du Maurier and Her Sisters: The Hidden Lives of Piffy, Bird and Bing by …, The Guardian
   Her book belongs to the growing genre of what might be called Sisterly Feelings; Paula Byrne’s excellent recent The Real Jane Austen and Dunn’s own A Very Close Conspiracy: Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf are notable examples, though perhaps one of …
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   Photo courtesy of Richard Davis. Downtown Wilmington’s Browncoat Pub & Theatre opens its latest play April 19, “William & Judith,” an original work by Cody Diagle. It was inspired by this quote from the author Virginia Woolf: “Let me imagine, since the …
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    … recalling Mr. Bennett’s working-class childhood in the north of England. An engaging treat, as we follow the gentle slope of the career he sums up as: “If you’re born in Barnsley and set your sights on being Virginia Woolf, it isn’t going to be ..
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12. Best Bets, April 19, Austin American-Statesman
    Virginia Woolf’s and James Joyce’s studies of characters’ inner ramblings are a Modernist artifact for plenty of writers and readers today. But for Kelman, they remain a useful way to explore the depths of people often considered outsiders. His Booker …
13. Entertainment calendar, News Sentinel
    IPFW’s Department of Theatre presents “Orlando,” the stage adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s novel by playwright Sarah Ruhl in its last weekend. Performances are at 8 p.m. today-Saturday and at 2 p.m. Sunday in Williams Theatre, 2101 Coliseum Blvd. E.
14. ‘Orlando’ highlights role of Greek chorus, Yale Daily News (blog)
    “Orlando,” a play by Sarah Ruhl, a lecturer at the School of Drama and Theatre Studies Department, is a dramatic adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s novel “Orlando: A Biography.” Orlando is a young man born in Elizabethan England who lives in several …
15. Tribeca Film Festival Will Honor Nora Ephron With an Annual Award to a Woman …, Slate Magazine (blog)
    But it’s a substantial cushion, an updated version of Virginia Woolf’s ”money and a room of her own.” And unlike lots of people who are honored by Hollywood, Ephron’s a genuinely great role model, someone who made movies about and for women—but not…
16. On the Page: Willa Cather and Fiona Maazel, New York Observer
    If Willa Cather isn’t the most well-known 20th century American writer, she’s certainly one of the most underrated, a direct descendent of Virginia Woolf and a clear precedent to the straight-laced social realism of Jonathan Franzen. The pressing …
17. Sleeping with Tilda and Quentin, Huffington Post
    In 1993, Tilda Swinton portrayed an English nobleman next to Quentin Crisp’s Queen Elizabeth in Sally Potter’s film adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s gender-bending novel, Orlando. In the film, Orlando, played by Swinton, subtly, surprisingly changes his …

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