The Wise Virgins

ISBN: 0300126530

Author: Woolf, Leonard

Condition: Used

The Wise Virgins (1914), Leonard Woolfs second novel, was published two years after the authors marriage to Virginia Stephen-and begun during their honeymoon. The autobiographical elements of the book are well documented. Its publication caused acute distress to Woolfs family. Leonards sister, Bella, urged him to bury the novel, while his mother was shocked and mortified by unflattering portraits of herself and her neighbors. Two weeks after reading the novel, Virginia Woolf suffered the worst of her many breakdowns.As aroman clef the novel holds considerable interest for its picture of Leonard and Virginias courtship, as well as its sketches of Vanessa Stephen and Clive Bell. (Virginia would later retell the story, from a much different perspective, in Night and Day.) But the novel offers the contemporary reader other rewards. It remains a witty, engaging satire about English society just before World War I and its conventions and prejudices. In Harry Davis, Woolf created a memorable Jewish antihero who rails against societys conventions but tragically finds himself unable to escape them. Award-winning biographer Victoria Glendinning contributes a foreword to this new paperback edition.