【Preface】
Virginia Woolf, a famous British writer, and her husband remained sexless for 31 years, and servants privately debated whether she was a virgin.
This question does not need to be answered, because Virginia Woolf was abused by two older brothers when he was a child.
In the spring of 1941, 59-year-old Virginia Woolf, with his jacket pocket full of pebbles, sank himself in the Ouse River.
This woman writer, recognized as the preeminent woman of the twentieth century and hailed as the genius of the lily of England, chose to say goodbye in this way
Room.
The more you understand her tragic fate, the more you can understand why she committed suicide. As Yasunari Kawabata said: Death rejects all explanations, and a wordless death is an infinite life.
【Childhood Nightmare】
Virginia Woolf, born Virginia Stephen, Woolf, is the surname of her second husband, Leonard Woolf.
Her husband's surname is famous because of her, but after she becomes famous, she only deserves her husband's surname, which is undoubtedly the great irony of the patriarchal society. As a sign of respect, I will address her by her first name, Virginia, for the rest of the story.
Virginia was born into an English aristocratic family, and his father, Sir Leslie Stephen, was a famous scholar and writer in Cambridge.
Her mother, Julia, is of mixed English and Indian descent, and her family is famous for its amazing beauty, and Virginia inherited her mother's genes and was intelligent and beautiful since childhood.
However, Virginia, who has an aristocratic family and beautiful face, her childhood was a nightmarish existence.
Virginia's parents were both married and reorganized, the father had a daughter with his ex-wife, the mother had three children with her ex-husband, and the two married and gave birth to four children, including Virginia. A family of ten, two groups of children, seems to be a famous gate of the noble house where people are prosperous, but it is actually a hellish ghost gate that hides dirt.
The young Virginia was abused by two older half-brothers. This brought her a spiritual damage that could not be erased in her life, and became the beginning of her tragic life.
In The Moment of Being, she described her situation as follows: "I felt like an unfortunate little fish, locked in the same tank as a huge and turbulent shark."
This unfortunate little fish is imprisoned in painful memories and has nowhere to escape, but swims freely in the long river of literature.
Like other ordinary girls, Virginia, as Miss Qianjin, was denied the right to go to school, but fortunately, she had a family background and enjoyed a strong cultural education.
At the age of 9, Virginia showed an amazing ability to learn, devouring her father's massive collection of books at a glance. Her father often held literary salons at home, and she listened to them talk about literature and philosophy.
Although their conversation was cloudy, Virginia became acquainted with Thomas Hardy and Herb
Te Spencer and other cultural celebrities are destined to embark on the path of writers.
Acquiring book knowledge and listening to celebrity teachings can certainly produce spiritual pleasure, but this spiritual pleasure cannot eliminate Virginia's mental anguish, and the subsequent family changes gradually break down her already fragile nerves.
【Writer's Road】
When Virginia was 13 years old, her beloved mother died, and she had a nervous breakdown;
At the age of 15, her eldest sister died of pregnancy; When her father died at the age of 22, she had a second nervous breakdown and tried to commit suicide by jumping out of a window;
At the age of 24, his own brother died of typhoid fever.
In just nine years, after the loss of four close relatives, the family's vicissitudes continue to hit Virginia's fragile nerves. And her love life is even more tortuous.
Because of the painful memories of her childhood, there has always been a gap between her and the opposite sex. As a result, she became more attached to her second sister Vinnisha, who had a very good relationship with her, and this attachment went far beyond family affection and became affection.
When she heard the news of her sister's marriage, she felt deeply betrayed and firmly opposed the marriage.
After obstructing to no avail, she said bitterly: "You also know that no one in this world loves you more than me."
At the age of 27, Virginia and the famous biographer Strachey were engaged, but soon broke the engagement, and the two have since become lifelong friends.
Strachey thought Virginia needed someone to take care of her, so she introduced her friend Leonard Woolf to her.
Leonard Woolf admires Virginia's talent and willingness to accept her past, believing that he can bridge the gap between her heart and the opposite sex with his passion and love, but the harsh reality makes his beautiful vision come to naught.
At the age of 28, Virginia married Leonard Woolf, and her husband's surname was Virginia Woolf.
Leonard gave Virginia meticulous care, tirelessly reminding her not to throw her wedding ring in the pan of oil and not to wear a reverse petticoat at the ball. However, physical illness can be eliminated, but heart disease is difficult to get rid of.
Virginia was extremely uncomfortable with married life, disgusted with husband and wife, and insisted on sleeping in a separate room with Leonard.
And often relapsed psychosis, once swallowed sleeping pills to commit suicide, was sent to the hospital by Leonard in time, rescued.
Leonard finally recognized the reality and chose to pursue spiritual love, but loved Virginia even more.
He became the first reader of Virginia's novels, helped her set up a publishing house, and spared no effort to promote her work.
And Virginia has long regarded him as her only dependency, once saying to others: "If it weren't for him, I would have shot myself."
With Leonard's support and love, Virginia's amazing literary talent was unleashed, and he published many classics such as "Spots on the Wall", "Mrs. Dalloway", "To the Lighthouse", "Orlando" and "A Room of One's Own". Recognized as a stream-of-consciousness writer, an outstanding female writer of the twentieth century and a pioneer of modernism and feminism, she is world-renowned.
【Towards Eternal Life】
But these classics were born at the cost of Virginia's repeated mental breakdowns. With each completed work, she had a relapse of psychosis, which took up to nine months to improve.
The mental pain made her tormented, and the harsh reality made her feel desperate.
In 1940, the Germans bombed the British Isles, leaving Virginia's home and publishing house in ruins. And Leonard was terrified because of his Jewish identity.
The husband and wife agreed that once the German army occupied LinkedIn the country, they would commit suicide and martyrdom together to avoid the humiliation of fascism.
On March 28, 1941, Virginia completed the novel "Makuma", and after premoniting that the impending nervous breakdown would not be cured, she left Leonard and her sister two suicide notes, sneaked out of the house, and sank to the bottom of the Ouse River.
Leonard couldn't find Virginia and said to the servant in despair, "She must have killed herself."
When he ran to the shore, he only found the cane left on the ground. A month later, Virginia's body was salvaged ashore. Leonard claimed her body alone, and after declining everyone, he attended her funeral alone and buried her ashes under the tree they had previously named Virginia.
The epitaph is a verse from her novel The Waves: "Death, even if I am in your arms, I will not give in and be not dominated".
In her suicide note to Leonard, Virginia wrote: "I'm ruining your life, you can be better off without me, and I know you will." I want to say that I owe you a lifetime of happiness and I can't continue to erode your life. I believe that no other couple in the world has ever achieved more happiness than we have.
After the burial of Virginia, Leonard compiled and published Virginia's posthumous work, "Makuma". Over the next 28 years, Leonard continued to compile and publish Virginia's manuscripts and completed a five-volume autobiography.
Leonard died in 1969 at the age of 88, and his ashes were buried under an elm tree next to Virginia's tomb.
I hope that in another world, they will no longer be tortured and teased, and they can become lovers, or family, or friends, and they will meet and love each other again in each life, and they will be together for eternity.
Leonard is great, Virginia is great, and we can read that in their lives, as well as in their words.
Virginia has many representative works, and if I have to recommend her work to someone who doesn't like to read, then I recommend reading her "A Room of One's" first.
The book, based on two speeches by Virginia at Cambridge University Women's College, has been hailed as a landmark classic in feminist literature. She used the famous line from the book: "For a woman to be a writer, she needs at least a room of her own and an income of £500 a year".
Warning women not to sit in a room until death, but to fight for material and spiritual independent space, which shook society like a thunder and became a declaration of women's liberation.
Whether male or female, I sincerely recommend that you read this book "A Room of Your Own" to regain the joy of thinking and the strength to move forward.
[References]
Biography of Virginia Woolf. Quentin Bell
"A Room of One". Virginia Woolf|Translated by Song Weihang
Lily of England: Virginia. Woolf. North China Petroleum News. Chang Wenyan
Walking on the borderline of elegance and madness. New Business Daily. Zou
Virginia Woolf: Deep and desperate poetry. Literature and Art Daily. Jiang Xiangming
Virginia Woolf: The Woman Driven Crazy by Talent Phoenix Literary Press. Momo white