Editing Virginia Woolf (section)

== Life ==
=== Early life ===
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| image1 = Leslie Stephen c1860.jpg
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Virginia Woolf was born Adeline Virginia Stephen on 25 January 1882, in [[South Kensington]], London,{{sfn|Gordon|2004}} to [[Julia Stephen|Julia (née Jackson)]] and [[Leslie Stephen|Sir Leslie Stephen]]. Her father was a writer, historian, essayist, biographer, and mountaineer, while her mother was a noted philanthropist.{{sfn|Gordon|2004}}{{sfn|Garnett|2004}} Woolf's maternal relatives include [[Julia Margaret Cameron]], a celebrated photographer, and [[Lady Henry Somerset]], a campaigner for women's rights.{{sfn|Garnett|2004}} Originally named after her aunt Adeline, Woolf did not use her first name due to her aunt's recent death.{{sfn|Harris|2011|pp=12-13}}

Both Virginia's parents had children from previous marriages. Julia's first marriage, to barrister [[Herbert Duckworth]], produced three children: [[George Herbert Duckworth|George]], Stella, and [[Gerald Duckworth|Gerald]].{{sfn|Garnett|2004}} Leslie's first marriage, to Minny Thackeray, daughter of [[William Makepeace Thackeray]], resulted in one daughter, Laura.{{sfn|Gordon|2004}} Leslie and Julia Stephen had four children together: [[Vanessa Bell|Vanessa]], [[Thoby Stephen|Thoby]], Virginia, and [[Adrian Stephen|Adrian]].{{sfn|Gordon|2004}}

[[File:Duckworth Stephen Family 1892.jpg|thumb|Duckworth/Stephen Family {{circa|1892}}. Back row: Gerald Duckworth, Virginia, Thoby and Vanessa Stephen, George Duckworth. Front row: Adrian, Julia, Leslie Stephen.]]

Virginia showed an early affinity for writing. By the age of five, she was writing letters, and her fascination with books helped form a bond with her father.{{sfn|Gordon|2004}} From the age of 10, she began an illustrated family newspaper, the ''Hyde Park Gate News'', chronicling life and events within the Stephen family,{{sfn|Harris|2011|p=18}} and modelled on the popular magazine ''[[Tit-Bits]]''.{{sfn|Lowe|2005|p=vii}} Virginia would run the ''Hyde Park Gate News'' until 1895.{{sfn|Lowe|2005|p=ix}} In 1897, Virginia began her first diary,{{sfn|Woolf|1990|loc=1 January 1898|p=134}} which she kept for the next twelve years.{{sfn|Woolf|1990}}

==== Talland House ====

In the spring of 1882, Leslie rented a large white house in [[St Ives, Cornwall]].{{sfn|Eagle|Carnell|1981|p=232}}{{sfn|Gordon|2004}} The family spent three months each summer there for the first 13 years of Virginia's life.{{sfn|Harris|2011|pp=19-20}} Despite its limited amenities, the house's main attraction was the view of Porthminster Bay overlooking the [[Godrevy Lighthouse]].{{sfn|Gordon|2004}} The happy summers spent at Talland House would later influence Woolf's novels ''[[Jacob's Room]]'', ''[[To the Lighthouse]]'' and ''[[The Waves]]''.{{sfn|Wright|2011|p=22}}

At both Talland House and her family home, the family engaged with many literary and artistic figures. Frequent guests included literary figures such as [[Henry James]], [[George Meredith]], and  [[James Russell Lowell]].{{cn|date=June 2024}} The family did not return after 1894; a hotel was constructed in front of the house which blocked the sea view, and Julia Stephen died in May the following year.{{sfn|Harris|2011|pp=21-22}}

{{multiple image | align = center | direction = horizontal | total_width = 700 | float = none
|image1=Talland House, c1882–1894.jpg |caption1=Talland House, [[St Ives, Cornwall]], {{circa|1882}}–1895|alt1=Photo of Talland House, St Ives during period when the Stephen family leased it
|image2=Virginia Adrian Stephen cricket.1886.jpg |caption2 = Virginia and Adrian Stephen playing [[cricket]], 1886|alt2= Virginia and Adrian Stephen playing cricket at Talland House in 1886
|image3=Julia Leslie Virginia.jpg|caption3=Julia, Leslie and Virginia, Library, Talland House, 1892|alt3=Julia, Leslie and Virginia reading in the library at Talland House. Photography by Vanessa Bell
|image4= Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell children.jpg|caption4= Virginia and Vanessa, 1894| alt4= Virginia playing cricket with Vanessa 1894
|image5=GodrevyLightHouse.JPG |caption5=[[Godrevy Lighthouse]], 2005|alt5=View of Godrevy Lighthouse in 2005
}}

==== Sexual abuse ====
In the 1939 essay "A Sketch of the Past", Woolf first disclosed that she had experienced sexual abuse by Gerald Duckworth during childhood.<ref>Virginia Woolf, "A Sketch of the Past", in ''Moments of Being'' (London: Hogarth Press, 1985), p. 69.</ref><ref>Roger Poole, ''The Unknown Virginia Woolf'' (Cambridge University Press, 1978), pp. 27–34.</ref> There is speculation that this contributed to her mental health issues later in life.{{sfn|Lee|1997a|pp=123-124}} There are also suggestions of sexual impropriety from George Duckworth during the period that he was caring for the Stephen sisters when they were teenagers.{{sfn|Lee|1997a|pp=151-156}}

==== Adolescence ====
[[File:Virginia Woolf with her father, Sir Leslie Stephen.jpg|thumb|Virginia and Leslie Stephen, 1902|alt=Portrait of Virginia Woolf with her father Leslie Stephen in 1902, by Beresford]]
Her mother's death precipitated what Virginia later identified as her first "breakdown"{{emdash}}for months afterwards she was nervous and agitated, and she wrote very little for the subsequent two years.{{sfn|Harris|2011|p=25}} 

Stella Duckworth took on a parental role in the household.{{sfn|Gordon|2004}} She married in April 1897 but remained closely involved with the Stephens, moving to a house very close to the Stephens to continue to support the family. However, she fell ill on her honeymoon and died in July of that same year.{{sfn|Harris|2011|p=28}}{{sfn|Bell|1972|loc=Chronology|p=191}} After Stella's death, George Duckworth took on the role of head of the household, and sought to [[debut (society)|bring Vanessa and Virginia into society]].{{sfn|Harris|2011|p=29}}<ref name=MP230/> However, this experience did not resonate with either sister. Virginia later reflected on this societal expectation, stating: "Society in those days was a very competent, perfectly complacent, ruthless machine. A girl had no chance against its fangs. No other desires{{emdash}}say to paint, or to write{{emdash}}could be taken seriously."{{sfn|Woolf|1940|p=157}} For Virginia, writing remained a priority.<ref name=MP230/> She began a new diary at the start of 1897 and filled notebooks with fragments and literary sketches.{{sfn|Bell|1972|loc=Chronology|p=190}}{{sfn|Harris|2011|p=35}}

In February 1904 Leslie Stephen died, which caused Virginia to suffer another period of mental instability, lasting from April to September. During this time she experienced a severe psychological crisis, which led to at least one suicide attempt.{{sfn|Harris|2011|p=36}} Woolf later described the period between 1897 and 1904 as "the seven unhappy years".{{sfn|Harris|2011|p=32}}

==== Education ====
[[File:Julia and the children at lessons 1894.jpg|thumb|Virginia (third from left) with her mother and the Stephen children at their lessons, Talland House, {{circa|1894}}|alt=Julia Stephen at Talland House supervising Thoby, Vanessa, Virginia and Adrian doing their lessons, summer 1894]]

As was common at the time, Virginia's mother did not believe in formal education for her daughters.{{sfn|Harris|2011|p=18}} Instead, Virginia was educated in a piecemeal fashion by her parents. She also received piano lessons.<ref name=Curtis58/>{{sfn|Harris|2011|pp=18-19}} Virginia had unrestricted access to her father's vast library, exposing her to much of the literary canon.<ref name=hauntedintro/> This resulted in a greater depth of reading than any of her Cambridge contemporaries.<ref name="Rosenbaum1/130"/> She later recalled: {{blockquote|Even today there may be parents who would doubt the wisdom of allowing a girl of fifteen the free run of a large and quite unexpurgated library. But my father allowed it. There were certain facts – very briefly, very shyly he referred to them. Yet "Read what you like", he said, and all his books...were to be had without asking.{{sfn|Woolf|1932a|p=72}}}}

Beginning in 1897, Virginia received private tutoring in Classical Greek and Latin. One of her tutors was [[Clara Pater]], who was instrumental to her classical education, while another, [[Janet Elizabeth Case|Janet Case]], became a lasting friend and introduced her to the [[Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom|suffrage movement]].{{sfn|Lee|1997a|pp=141,275-276}} Virginia also attended lectures at the [[King's College London|King's College]] Ladies' Department.{{sfn|Harris|2011|p=33}}

Although Virginia could not attend Cambridge, she was profoundly influenced by her brother Thoby's experiences there. When Thoby went to Trinity in 1899 he became part of an intellectual circle of young men, including [[Clive Bell]], [[Lytton Strachey]], [[Leonard Woolf]] (whom Virginia would later marry), and [[Saxon Sydney-Turner]]. He introduced his sisters to this circle at the [[Trinity May Ball]] in 1900.{{sfn|Todd|1999|p=12}} This circle formed a reading group that they named the Midnight Society, to which the Stephen sisters would later be invited.<ref name=Moggridge217/>

=== Bloomsbury (1904–1912) ===

==== Gordon Square ====
[[File:46 Gordon Square London.jpg|thumb|upright|46 Gordon Square| alt=Photograph of 46 Gordon Square, Virginia's home from 1904 to 1907]]

After their father's death, Vanessa and Adrian Stephen decided to sell their family home in South Kensington and move to [[Bloomsbury]], a more affordable area. The Duckworth brothers did not join the Stephens in their new home; Gerald did not wish to, and George married and moved with his wife during the preparations.{{sfn|Bell|1972|pp=94-96}} Virginia lived in the house for brief periods in the autumn{{snd}}she was sent away to Cambridge and Yorkshire for her health. She eventually settled there permanently in December 1904.{{sfn|Lee|1997a|pp=199-201}}

From March 1905 the Stephens hosted gatherings with Thoby's intellectual friends at their home. Their social gatherings, referred to as "Thursday evenings", aimed to recreate the atmosphere at Trinity College.{{sfn|Lee|1997a|pp=204,206}} This circle formed the core of the intellectual circle of writers and artists known as the [[Bloomsbury Group]].{{sfn|Todd|1999|p=12}} Later, it would include [[John Maynard Keynes]], [[Duncan Grant]], [[E. M. Forster]], [[Roger Fry]], and [[David Garnett]].{{efn|In the 1960s Leonard Woolf listed those people he considered to be "Old Bloomsbury" as: Vanessa and Clive Bell, Virginia and Leonard Woolf, Adrian and [[Karin Stephen]], Lytton Strachey, Maynard Keynes, Duncan Grant, E. M. Forster, Sydney Saxon-Turner, Roger Fry, Desmond and [[Molly MacCarthy]] and later David Garnett and [[Julian Bell|Julian]], [[Quentin Bell|Quentin]] and [[Angelica Garnett|Angelica Bell]]. Others add [[Ottoline Morrell]], [[Dora Carrington]] and [[James Strachey|James]] and [[Alix Strachey]]. The "core" group are considered to be the Stephens and Thoby's closest Cambridge friends, Leonard Woolf, Clive Bell, Lytton Strachey and Saxon Sydney-Turner.{{sfn|Wade|2015}}{{sfn|Lee|1997a|p=259}}}}{{sfn|Lee|1997a|p=259}} The group went on to gain notoriety for the [[Dreadnought hoax|''Dreadnought'' hoax]], in which they posed as a royal Abyssinian entourage. Among them, Virginia assumed the role of Prince Mendax.{{sfn|Lee|1997a|pp=278-283}}<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Oldfield |first=Sybil |title=Women against the Iron Fist. Alternatives to Militarism 1900-1989. |publisher=Basil Blackwell |year=1989 |isbn=0-631-14879-5 |location=Oxford |pages=96–130 |chapter=The Elegaic Artist: Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)}}</ref>

{{multiple image | header = The Stephens and their Bloomsbury Friends| align = center | direction = horizontal | total_width = 770 | float = none
| image1 =George-Beresford,-Vanessa-Bell.jpg| caption1 = Vanessa Stephen 1902|alt1=Portrait of Vanessa Stephen in 1902, by George Beresford
| image2 = Thoby Stephen by George Charles Beresford.jpeg |caption2 = Thoby Stephen 1902| alt2=Photograph of Thoby Stephen in 1902
| image3 = Adrian Karin 1914.jpg|caption3 = Adrian Stephen<br />Karin Stephen 1914 |alt3=Photograph of Adrian Stephen with his wife Karin Costelloe in 1914, the year they were married
| image4 = Clive-bell-c-1913.jpg| caption4= Clive Bell 1910|alt4=Photo of Clive Bell, seated, around 1910
| image5 = Lytton Sydney17.jpg| caption5= Lytton Strachey, {{nowrap|Sydney Saxon-Turner}} 1917|alt5=Snapshot by Ray Strachey of her brother, Lytton Strachey with Sydney Saxon-Turner, reclining at the beach
| image6 = Desmond MacCarthy 1912a.jpg| caption6= Desmond MacCarthy 1912|alt6=Photograph of Desmond MacCarthy sitting on steps, from 1912
}}

During this period, Virginia began teaching evening classes on a voluntary basis at [[Morley College]] and continued intermittently for the next two years. Her experience here would later influence themes of class and education in her novel ''[[Mrs Dalloway]]''.{{sfn|Lee|1997a|pp=218-220}} She also made some money from reviews, including some published in church paper ''[[The Guardian (Anglican newspaper)|The Guardian]]'' and the ''[[National Review (London)|National Review]]'', capitalising on her father's literary reputation in order to earn commissions.{{sfn|Lee|1997a|p=211}} 

Vanessa added another event to their calendar with the "Friday Club", dedicated to the discussion of the fine arts.{{sfn|Lee|1997a|p=216}} This gathering attracted some new members into their circle, including [[Henry Lamb]], [[Gwen Darwin]], and [[Katherine Laird Cox|Katherine Laird ("Ka") Cox]].{{sfn|Lee|1997a|p=216}} Cox was to become Virginia's intimate friend. These new members brought the Bloomsbury Group into contact with another, slightly younger, group of Cambridge intellectuals whom Virginia would refer to as the "Neo-Pagans". The Friday Club continued until 1912 or 1913.{{sfn|Lee|1997a|p=216}}

In the autumn of 1906, the siblings travelled to Greece and Turkey with Violet Dickinson.{{sfn|Lee|1997a|p=223}} During the trip both Violet and Thoby contracted [[typhoid fever]], which led to Thoby's death on 20 November of that year.{{sfn|Lee|1997a|pp=225-226}} Two days after Thoby's death, Vanessa accepted a previous proposal of marriage from Clive Bell.{{sfn|Lee|1997a|pp=210,226}} As a couple, their interest in [[avant-garde]] art would have an important influence on Virginia's further development as an author.{{sfn|Briggs|2006a|pp=69–70}}

==== Fitzroy Square and Brunswick Square ====
[[File:Virginia Woolf and George Bernard Shaw (5025918683).jpg|thumb|upright|29 Fitzroy Square|alt=Photo of 29 Fitzroy Square, Virginia's home from 1907 to 1910]]
After Vanessa's marriage, Virginia and Adrian moved into [[Fitzroy Square]], still very close to Gordon Square.{{sfn|Lee|1997a|p=233}}{{sfn|Bell|1972|p=196}} The new house had previously been occupied by [[George Bernard Shaw]], and the area had been populated by artists since the previous century.{{sfn|Lee|1997a|p=233}} Virginia resented the wealth that Vanessa's marriage had given her; Virginia and Adrian lived more humbly by comparison.{{sfn|Lee|1997a|pp=233-235}}

The siblings resumed the Thursday Club at their new home.{{sfn|Lee|1997a|p=235}} During this period, the Bloomsbury group increasingly explored progressive ideas, with open discussions of sexuality. Virginia, however, appears not to have shown interest in practising the group's ideologies, finding an outlet for her sexual desires only in writing.{{sfn|Lee|1997a|pp=238-241}}{{sfn|Bell|1972|p=170}} Around this time she began work on her first novel, ''Melymbrosia'', which eventually became ''[[The Voyage Out]]'' (1915).{{sfn|Lee|1997a|pp=232,274}}{{sfn|Bell|1972|p=196}}

In November 1911 Virginia and Adrian moved to a larger house in [[Brunswick Square]], and invited John Maynard Keynes, Duncan Grant and Leonard Woolf to become lodgers there.{{sfn|Lee|1997a|pp=267,300}}{{sfn|Bell|1972|p=180}} Virginia saw it as a new opportunity: "We are going to try all kinds of experiments", she told [[Ottoline Morrell]].{{sfn|Lee|1997a|p=288}} 

=== Asham House (1911–1919) ===
[[File:VStephenKCox.jpg|thumb|upright|Virginia Stephen (L) with [[Katherine Laird Cox|Katherine Cox]], Asham 1912|alt=Virginia Stephen with Katherine Cox at Asham in 1912]]

During the later Bloomsbury years, Virginia travelled frequently with friends and family, to Dorset, Cornwall, and farther afield to Paris, Italy and Bayreuth. These trips were intended to prevent her from suffering exhaustion due to extended periods in London.{{sfn|Lee|1997a|p=236}} The question arose of her needing a quiet country retreat close to London to support her still-fragile mental health.{{sfn|Bell|1972|p=166}} In the winter of 1910 she and Adrian stayed at [[Lewes]] and started exploring Sussex's surrounding area.{{sfn|Lee|1997a|p=236}} She soon found a property in nearby [[Firle]], which she named "Little Talland House"; she maintained a relationship with that region for the rest of her life, spending her time either in Sussex or London.{{efn|Virginia was somewhat disparaging about the exterior of Little Talland House, describing it as an "eyesore" (Letter to Violet Dickinson 29 January 1911) and "inconceivably ugly, done up in patches of post-impressionist colour" (Letters, no. 561, April 1911).{{sfn|Wilkinson|2001}}}}{{sfn|Bell|1972|pp=166–167,227-252}}

In September 1911 she and Leonard Woolf found Asham House{{efn|Sometimes spelt "Asheham" or "Ascham".{{sfn|Woolf|1964|p=56}}}} nearby, and she and Vanessa took a joint lease on it.{{sfn|Lee|1997a|p=311}} Located at the end of a tree-lined road, the house was in a Regency-Gothic style, "flat, pale, serene, yellow-washed", remote, without electricity or water and allegedly haunted.{{sfn|Eagle|Carnell|1981|pp=9-10}}{{sfn|Lee|1997a|pp=311-312}} The sisters had two housewarming parties in January 1912.{{sfn|Lee|1997a|p=311}}

Virginia recorded the weekends and holidays she spent there in her Asham Diary, part of which was later published as ''A Writer's Diary'' in 1953. Creatively, ''[[The Voyage Out]]'' was completed there, as was much of ''[[Night and Day (Woolf novel)|Night and Day]]''.{{sfn|Asham|2018}} The house itself inspired the short story "A Haunted House", published in ''[[A Haunted House and Other Short Stories]]''.{{sfn|Woolf|1964|p=57}} Asham provided Virginia with much-needed relief from the London's fast-paced life and was where she found happiness that she expressed in her diary on 5 May 1919: "Oh, but how happy we've been at Asheham! It was a most melodious time. Everything went so freely; – but I can't analyse all the sources of my joy".{{sfn|Asham|2018}}

{{multiple image |header = Houses in Sussex| align = center | direction = horizontal | total_width =800 | float = none
|image1= Little Talland House.jpg|caption1= Little Talland House, [[Firle]] | alt1=Photo of Little Talland House, Firle, East Sussex. Leased by Virginia Woolf in 1911
|image2=Asheham House, nr Beddingham ca. 1914.jpg| caption2 = Asham House, [[Beddingham]] | alt2= Photo of Asham house in 1914
|image3=The Round House, Lewes, 2017.jpg|caption3=The Round House, Lewes |alt3=The Round House in Lewes
|image4=Monk's House, Rodmell, UK.jpg|caption4=[[Monk's House]], Rodmell |alt4=Monk's House in Rodmell}}
While at Asham, in 1916 Leonard and Virginia found a farmhouse about four miles away that they thought would be ideal for her sister. Eventually, Vanessa visited to inspect it, and took possession in October of that year, establishing it as a summer home for her family. The [[Charleston Farmhouse]] was to become the summer gathering place for the Bloomsbury Group.{{sfn|Bell|1972|loc=Vol II: 1915–1918}}{{page needed|date=June 2024}}

=== Marriage and war (1912–1920) ===
[[File:Virginia and Leonard Woolf, 1912 (borderless crop).jpg|thumb|upright|Engagement photograph, Virginia and Leonard Woolf, 23 July 1912|alt=Virginia and Leonard on their engagement in July 1912]]
[[Leonard Woolf]] was one of Thoby Stephen's friends at Trinity College, Cambridge, and had encountered the Stephen sisters in Thoby's rooms while visiting for [[May Week]] between 1899 and 1904. He recalled that in "white dresses and large hats, with parasols in their hands, their beauty literally took one's breath away".{{sfn|Lee|1997a|pp=204-205}} In 1904 Leonard left Britain for a civil service position in [[Ceylon]],{{sfn|Wright|2011|p=40}} but returned for a year's leave in 1911 after letters from Lytton Strachey, describing Virginia's beauty enticed him back.{{sfn|Harris|2011|p=47}}{{sfn|Wright|2011|p=50}} He and Virginia attended social engagements together, and he moved into Brunswick Square as a tenant in December of that year.

Leonard proposed to Virginia on 11 January 1912.{{sfn|Lee|1997a|pp=300-301}} Initially she expressed reluctance, but the two continued courting. Leonard decided not to return to Ceylon and resigned from his post. On 29 May Virginia declared her love for Leonard,{{sfn|Lee|1997a|pp=301-304}} and they married on 10 August at [[Camden Town Hall|St Pancras Town Hall]]. The couple spent their honeymoon first at Asham and the [[Quantock Hills]] before travelling to the south of France, Spain and Italy. Upon returning, they moved to [[Clifford's Inn]],{{sfn|Lee|1997a|pp=317-318}} and began to divide their time between London and Asham.{{sfn|Harris|2011|p=49}} Though Virginia wanted to have children, Leonard refused, as he believed Virginia was not mentally strong enough to be a mother, and worried that having children might worsen her mental health.{{sfn|Haynes|2019b}}

Virginia had completed a penultimate draft of her first novel ''[[The Voyage Out|The Voyage Out]]'' before her wedding but made large-scale alterations to the manuscript between December 1912 and March 1913. The work was later accepted by her half-brother Gerald Duckworth's publishing house, and she found the process of reading and correcting the proofs extremely emotionally difficult.{{sfn|Lee|1997a|p=321-322}} This led to one of several breakdowns over the next two years; Virginia attempted suicide on 9 September 1913 with an overdose of [[Veronal]], being saved with the help of surgeon, [[Geoffrey Keynes]].{{sfn|Harris|2011|pp=52,54}} Virginia's illness led to Duckworth delaying the publication of ''The Voyage Out'' until 26 March 1915.{{sfn|Lee|1997a|p=322}}

In the autumn of 1914 the couple moved to a house on [[Richmond Green]].{{sfn|Lee|1997a|p=325}} In late March 1915 they moved to Hogarth House, after which they named [[Hogarth Press|their publishing house]] in 1917.{{sfn|Lee|1997a|pp=346-347, 358}} The decision to move to London's suburbs was made for the sake of Virginia's health.{{sfn|Lee|1997a|p=346}} Many of Virginia's friends were against the war, and Virginia herself opposed it from a standpoint of pacifism and anti-censorship.{{sfn|Lee|1997a|pp=339-341,345}} Leonard was exempted from the [[Military Service Act 1916|introduction of conscription in 1916]] on medical grounds.{{sfn|Todd|1999|p=13}} The Woolfs employed two servants at the recommendation of [[Roger Fry]] in 1916; Lottie Hope worked for some other Bloomsbury Group members, and [[Nellie Boxall]] would stay with them until 1934.{{sfn|Lee|1997a|pp=349-350}}

The Woolfs spent parts of the World War I era in Asham but were obliged by the owner to leave in 1919.{{sfn|Lee|1997a|p=346,416}} "In despair" they purchased the Round House in Lewes. No sooner had they bought the Round House, than [[Monk's House]] in nearby [[Rodmell]] came up for auction, a [[weatherboarded]] house with oak-beamed rooms, said to date from the 15th or 16th century.{{sfn|Woolf|1964|p=61}} The Woolfs sold the Round House and purchased Monk's House for £700.{{sfn|Lee|1997a|p=67}} Monk's House also lacked running water but came with an acre of garden, and had a view across the Ouse towards the hills of the [[South Downs]]. Leonard Woolf describes this view as being unchanged since the days of [[Chaucer]].{{sfn|Eagle|Carnell|1981|p=228}} The Woolfs would retain Monk's House until the end of Virginia's life; it became their permanent home after their London home was bombed, and it was where she completed ''[[Between the Acts]]'' in early 1941, which was followed by her final breakdown and suicide in the nearby River Ouse on 28 March.{{sfn|Todd|1999|p=13}}

=== Further works (1920{{ndash}}1940) ===
==== Memoir Club ====
{{main|Memoir Club}}
{{multiple image | header = ''Bloomsberries''| align = center | direction = horizontal | total_width = 600 | float = none
| image1 = Mary ('Molly') MacCarthy1915 (3x4 crop).jpg| caption1 = [[Mary MacCarthy]] and son 1915|alt1=Photo of Mary MacCarthy with her son Michael in 1915. Taken by Lady Ottoline Morrell |width1=
| image2 = EMForster1917.jpg| caption2 = [[E. M. Forster]] 1917| alt2 =Portrait of E M Forster 1917| width2=
| image3 = Duncan Grant with John Maynard Keynes.jpg| caption3 = [[Duncan Grant]] (L)<br />[[John Maynard Keynes]] 1912| alt3=Photo of Duncan Grant talking to John Maynard Keynes in 1912| width3=
| image4 = Roger Fry (Coburn) 1913 (cropped).jpg| caption4 = [[Roger Fry]] 1913|alt4= Portrait of Roger Fry in 2013| width4=
| image5 = David Garnett.jpg| caption5 = [[David Garnett]] {{circa|1902}}|alt5= Portrait of David Garnett, aged about 20|width5=
}}
1920 saw a postwar reconstitution of the Bloomsbury Group, under the title of the [[Memoir Club]], which as the name suggests focussed on self-writing, in the manner of [[Proust]]'s ''[[A La Recherche]]'', and inspired some of the more influential books of the 20th century. The Group, which had been scattered by the war, was reconvened by [[Molly MacCarthy|Mary ('Molly') MacCarthy]] who called them "Bloomsberries", and operated under rules derived from the [[Cambridge Apostles]], an elite university debating society of which some of them had been members. These rules emphasised candour and openness. Among the 125 memoirs presented, Virginia contributed three that were published posthumously in 1976, in the autobiographical anthology ''[[Moments of Being]]''. These were ''22 Hyde Park Gate'' (1921), ''Old Bloomsbury'' (1922) and ''Am I a Snob?'' (1936).{{sfn|Rosenbaum|Haule|2014}}{{page needed|date=July 2024}}

==== Vita Sackville-West ====
[[File:Vita Sackville-West at Monk's House.jpg|thumb|[[Vita Sackville-West]] at Monk's House {{circa|1934}}|alt=Photo of Vita Sackville-West in armchair at Virginia's home at Monk's House, smoking and with dog on her lap]]
On 14 December 1922{{sfn|Bell|1972|loc=Vol. II |p=235}} Woolf met the writer and gardener [[Vita Sackville-West]],{{sfn|Todd|1999|p=13}} wife of [[Harold Nicolson]]. This period was to prove fruitful for both authors, Woolf producing three novels, ''To the Lighthouse'' (1927), ''Orlando'' (1928), and ''The Waves'' (1931) as well as a number of essays, including "[[Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown]]" (1924) and "[[A Letter to a Young Poet]]" (1932).{{sfn|Hussey|2006}} The two women remained friends until Woolf's death in 1941.

Virginia Woolf also remained close to her surviving siblings, Adrian and Vanessa.{{sfn|Briggs|2006a|p=13}}

==== Further novels and non-fiction ====
Between 1924 and 1940 the Woolfs returned to Bloomsbury, taking out a ten-year lease at 52 [[Tavistock Square]],{{sfn|Todd|1999|p=13}} from where they ran the [[Hogarth Press]] from the basement, where Virginia also had her writing room.{{sfn|Garnett|2011|pp=52–54}} 

1925 saw the publication of ''Mrs Dalloway'' in May followed by her collapse while at Charleston in August. In 1927, her next novel, ''To the Lighthouse'', was published, and the following year she lectured on ''Women & Fiction'' at Cambridge University and published ''Orlando'' in October. 

Her two Cambridge lectures then became the basis for her major essay ''A Room of One's Own'' in 1929.{{sfn|Todd|1999|p=13}} Virginia wrote only one drama, ''[[Freshwater (play)|Freshwater]]'', based on her great-aunt [[Julia Margaret Cameron]], and produced at her sister's studio on [[Fitzroy Street, London|Fitzroy Street]] in 1935. 1936 saw the publication of ''[[The Years]]'', which had its origin in a lecture Woolf gave to the National Society for Women's Service in 1931, an edited version of which would later be published as "Professions for Women".{{sfn|Woolf|1977|pages=xxvii–xliv}} Another collapse of her health followed the novel's completion ''[[The Years]]''.{{sfn|Todd|1999|p=13}}

The Woolfs' final residence in London was at 37 [[Mecklenburgh Square]] (1939–1940), destroyed during [[the Blitz]] in September 1940; a month later their previous home on Tavistock Square was also destroyed. After that, they made Sussex their permanent home.{{sfn|Lee|1997a|pp=728-730,733}}

=== Death ===
[[File:Handwriting-virginia-woolf-10921544-600-870.jpg|thumb|upright|Woolf's suicide letter to her husband]]
After completing the manuscript of her last novel (posthumously published), ''[[Between the Acts]]'' (1941), Woolf fell into a depression similar to one that she had earlier experienced. The onset of the Second World War, the destruction of her London home during [[the Blitz]], and the cool reception given to [[Roger Fry: A Biography|her biography]] of her late friend [[Roger Fry]] all worsened her condition until she was unable to work.{{sfn|Lee|1997a|pp=725,739}} When Leonard enlisted in the [[Home Guard (United Kingdom)|Home Guard]], Virginia disapproved. She held fast to her [[pacifism]] and criticised her husband for wearing what she considered to be "the silly uniform of the Home Guard".{{sfn|Gordon|1984|p=269}}

After the Second World War began, Woolf's diary indicates that she was obsessed with death, which figured more and more as her mood darkened.{{sfn|Gordon|1984|p=279}} On 28 March 1941, Woolf drowned herself by walking into the fast-flowing [[River Ouse, Sussex|River Ouse]] near her home, after placing a large stone in her pocket.{{sfn|Lee|1997a|pp=747-748}} Her body was not found until 18 April.{{sfn|Lee|1997a|p=752}} Her husband buried her cremated remains beneath an elm tree in the garden of [[Monk's House]], their home in [[Rodmell]], Sussex.{{sfn|Wilson|2016|p=825}}

In her suicide note, addressed to her husband, she wrote:
{{blockquote|Dearest,
I feel certain that I am going mad again. I feel we can't go through another of those terrible times. And I shan't recover this time. I begin to hear voices, and I can't concentrate. So I am doing what seems the best thing to do. You have given me the greatest possible happiness. You have been in every way all that anyone could be. I don't think two people could have been happier till this terrible disease came. I can't fight it any longer. I know that I am spoiling your life, that without me you could work. And you will I know. You see I can't even write this properly. I can't read. What I want to say is I owe all the happiness of my life to you. You have been entirely patient with me and incredibly good. I want to say that—everybody knows it. If anybody could have saved me it would have been you. Everything has gone from me but the certainty of your goodness. I can't go on spoiling your life any longer. I don't think two people could have been happier than we have been. V.{{sfn|Jones|2013}}{{sfn|Rose|1979|p=243}} }}