The life of Violet : three early stories / by Virginia Woolf ; transcribed, annotated, and introduced by Urmila Seshagiri.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Woolf, Virginia, 1882-1941, author.

Contributor:

Seshagiri, Urmila, 1971- transcriber, annotater, writer of introduction.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Woolf, Virginia, 1882-1941--Fiction.

Woolf, Virginia.

Women--Fiction.

Women.

Social norms--Fiction.

Social norms.

Aristocracy (Social class)--Fiction.

Aristocracy (Social class).

Short stories, English--20th century.

Short stories, English.

English fiction--20th century.

English fiction.

Genre:

short stories.

Short stories.

Fiction.

Physical Description:

xv, 123 pages : illustration, portraits ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Princeton, New Jersey ; Oxford : Princeton University Press, 2025.

Summary:

"A beguiling trio of fantastical and farcical anti-fairy tales about a giantess who builds a magical 'cottage of one's own,' battles a silver-scaled sea monster, and defies governesses and gravity alike. In 1907, eight years before she published her first novel, a twenty-five-year-old Virginia Woolf drafted three interconnected comic stories chronicling the adventures of a giantess named Violet -- a teasing tribute to Woolf's friend Mary Violet Dickinson. But it was only in 2022 that Woolf scholar Urmila Seshagiri discovered a final, revised typescript of the stories. The typescript revealed that Woolf had finished this mock-biography, making it her first fully realized literary experiment and a work that anticipates her later masterpieces. Published here for the first time in its final form, The Life of Violet blends fantasy, fairy tale, and satire as it transports readers into a magical world where the heroine triumphs over sea-monsters as well as stifling social traditions. In these irresistible and riotously plotted stories, Violet, who has powers "as marvelous as her height," gleefully flouts aristocratic proprieties, finds joy in building 'a cottage of one's own,' and travels to Japan to help create a radical new social order. Amid flights of fancy such as a snowfall of sugared almonds and bathtubs made of painted ostrich eggs, The Life of Violet upends the marriage plot, rejects the Victorian belief that women must choose between virtue and ambition, and celebrates women's friendships and laughter. A major literary discovery that heralds Woolf's ambitions to revolutionize fiction and sheds new light on her great themes, The Life of Violet is first and foremost a delight to read. This volume features a preface, afterword, notes, and photographs that provide rich historical, literary, and biographical context."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Dramatis personae

The life of Violet. Friendships gallery

The magic garden

A story to make you sleep.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780691263137

0691263132

OCLC:

1504948854