Editing Virginia Woolf (section)

=== 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}}