[Vwoolf] Virginia Woolf's teeth / Virginia Woolf's sentences

Fri Apr 8 14:07:42 EDT 2022

 Marie-Claire,
As far as (2) goes, yes, VW was prone to exaggeration for comic effect, so a pinch of salt seems the right approach. By 'last tooth' she could of course mean the last tooth of X number that were slated for removal, rather than the last tooth of all. Having said that, in the 1920s there was a stream of medical thought that considered tooth extraction a treatment for physical and even mental illness. Hermione Lee writes about this in her intro to the Paris Press edition of On Being Ill.
For (3) it sounds as though you are thinking of Lytton's letter to Leonard Woolf after the publication of Two Stories:

'The liquidity of the style fills me with envy: really someof the sentences! – How on earth does she manage to make the English languagefloat and float?’

(Quoted from Levy's edition of Lytton's letters, but I’vepencilled a note in my copy that ‘the sentences’ is ‘those sentences’ in theoriginal, so this may need checking.)

Sarah

Sarah M. Hall
Executive Council, Virginia Woolf Society of GB
Web: virginiawoolfsociety.org.uk
Facebook: @VWSGB
Twitter: @VirginiaWoolfGB
Instagram: @virginiawoolfsociety

    On Wednesday, 6 April 2022, 23:18:46 BST, Marie Claire Boisset <mc at clarior.net> wrote:  

 Sarah:
Thank you so much for getting back to me promptly the other day. Shame it took me so long to reply (and the ball did not start rolling 😢).
How to answer your wonderful, striking quotations in 2 lines?
2) this factual (tbc?) note gave me a shock...  hence a few days before the following attempt at a proper answer:

Even taken with a pinch of salt, it seems stunning that "Meanwhile (her) teeth (fell) out when (she) talked; when (she ate); when (she) telephone(d)"!   ("Oh my!" - is the thought - or else: "wow", or: "Oh, Nooo!").Yet, she retained a reputation for beauty until much later, didn't she? But 1929 was certainly an early age for VW to lose all her teeth. And then one wonders about the reasons for her depression (etc.). For her dislike of sitting for photographs. For not smiling often enough.
A good lesson, and a role-model, I thought, for all the "middle-aged" women who tend to feel sorry for themselves (as I tend to, sometimes!).  Life in Europe in 1929 was not half as easy (for practical, health things such as dental care, for example!) as they would be now (even for far less "privileged" people).  So the little sentence that you sent reminded me the following: when tempted to feel sorry for myself for small things - have a thought of a woman's life (even the "daughter of a very educated man") in 1929 or 1922, 1917 or 1918... or 1940, etc. Now Ukraine (or Afghanistan), April 2022.
Another reason, I thought, to try to see the glass half full... Let me grab the rose-colored 👓 😊
3) Thank you again also Sarah, if I may, for sharing the quotation about Dorothy Richardson. Very interesting and worth pondering more.  I meant to ask about "the English sentence" - about her "(reinventing) the language" (was it?) - or "the sentence"?  (Maybe in a letter from Lytton?).
Trying to make up my mind on what soft copy (Kindle or other) of the "Complete VW" to allow for live term searches of this kind... Maybe the answer will be found that way.
So as you can tell, your choice of 2 quotations was very powerful and so apt that I felt the need to answer at length!
Thank you in advance for your time reading. Not to worry otherwise, of course!
Hope you all have a good rest of the week.🌞
MC

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On Thu, Mar 31, 2022 at 1:32 PM Sarah M. Hall <smhall123 at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

 Marie-Claire,
It's likely that you'll receive numerous replies about this, making different points, but to start the ball rolling:
2) Woolf frequently complains about her teeth in her Diary and Letters, e.g. writing to Vanessa Bell, 18 May 1929: 'I've just had my last tooth out; and they've put in what they call a transformation - temporary of course - to last three months. Meanwhile my teeth fall out when I talk; when I eat; when I telephone.' 

3) Woolf herself credited Dorothy Richardson with the 'psychological sentence of the feminine gender' (Romance of the Heart, Essays 3, p. 367). 

Sarah

Sarah M. Hall
Executive Council, Virginia Woolf Society of GB
Web: virginiawoolfsociety.org.uk
Facebook: @VWSGB
Twitter: @VirginiaWoolfGB
Instagram: @virginiawoolfsociety

    On Thursday, 31 March 2022, 11:15:54 BST, Marie Claire Boisset via Vwoolf <vwoolf at lists.osu.edu> wrote:  

  Thank you all for sharing this! It is always nice to see VW remembered, not from a suicidal, death-spiral angle, but for the smiles & laughs too! Please might any one be able to answer the following questions for me, as I can't pinpointZjQcmQRYFpfptBannerStart    This Message Is From an External Sender  This message came from outside your organization.      Report Suspicious      ZjQcmQRYFpfptBannerEndThank you all for sharing this!  It is always nice to see VW remembered, not from a suicidal, death-spiral angle, but for the smiles & laughs too!
Please might any one be able to answer the following questions for me, as I can't pinpoint these right now:1) that she hated to pause for photographs ("torture?"), hence the paucity of samples;2) that she had bad teeth, hence did not want to smile on photographs bec. she wanted to hide her teeth;
3) that she "(re)invented the English language/(modern) sentence" - or something else to that effect?       (or is the latter only in my (wild) dreams/imagination)? 
Thank you - may you all be safe & well. 🌞😊

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| Marie-Claire Boisset-Pestourie 

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| Address  2 rue Traversière, 19100 Brive-La-Gaillarde, France   |

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| Email  mc at clarior.net  |

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IMPORTANT: The contents of this email and any attachments are confidential. They are intended for the named recipient(s) only. If you have received this email by mistake, please notify the sender immediately and do not disclose the contents to anyone or make copies thereof. 
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On Thu, Mar 31, 2022 at 2:23 AM Juliette Mai via Vwoolf <vwoolf at lists.osu.edu> wrote:

  Hello, this link! https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/20/arts/virginia-woolf-nypl.html__;!!KGKeukY!nj6CdXDXQ8iVojI3s3zuf1SXO-fVeXfGuD7F5ifrUfHHKt-Vfpi-y7-9hAqmPpa9m-A$  Virginia and Clive Bell laughing at the beach. Best regards Giulietta Mai Il gio 31 mar 2022, 00:39 <vwoolf-request at lists.osu.edu ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ZjQcmQRYFpfptBannerStart    This Message Is From an External Sender  This message came from outside your organization.      Report Suspicious      ZjQcmQRYFpfptBannerEndHello,
this link!
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/20/arts/virginia-woolf-nypl.html__;!!KGKeukY!nj6CdXDXQ8iVojI3s3zuf1SXO-fVeXfGuD7F5ifrUfHHKt-Vfpi-y7-9hAqmPpa9m-A$ 

Virginia and Clive Bell laughing at the beach.Best regards
Giulietta Mai

Il gio 31 mar 2022, 00:39 <vwoolf-request at lists.osu.edu> ha scritto:

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Today's Topics:

   1. Re: seeking high dpi pix of laughing Virginia Stephen     at
      Cambridge (Marielle O'Neill (1806529) PHD)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2022 22:38:58 +0000
From: "Marielle O'Neill (1806529) PHD" <M.ONeill at leedstrinity.ac.uk>
To: Leslie Hankins <lhankins at cornellcollege.edu>, Virginia Woolf
        <Vwoolf at lists.osu.edu>
Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] seeking high dpi pix of laughing Virginia
        Stephen at      Cambridge
Message-ID:
        <LO2P265MB5085F9E14452D94047D0FA3FB61F9 at LO2P265MB5085.GBRP265.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM>

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1256"

Hi,

It?s from the NPG.

See:
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait-list.php?search=sp&sText=Virginia*Woolf__;Kw!!KGKeukY!hOVY1eiRPg5oKR6BdqYs1e0U49C4LKfvsIA_n5VDpa7uLUr-7D-NDDR4eEE9jmx9g4I$ 

Warm wishes,
Marielle

From: Vwoolf <vwoolf-bounces+m.oneill=leedstrinity.ac.uk at lists.osu.edu> On Behalf Of Leslie Hankins via Vwoolf
Sent: 30 March 2022 23:36
To: Virginia Woolf <Vwoolf at lists.osu.edu>
Subject: [Vwoolf] seeking high dpi pix of laughing Virginia Stephen at Cambridge

Hi all, actually I am desperately seeking pictures of VW laughing, from anywhere!! I saw this one online, but it doesn't say where it is from.  Does anyone have a clue? it would be perfect for my purposes if it were not such a pixilated ZjQcmQRYFpfptBannerStart
This Message Is From an External Sender
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    Report Suspicious  <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https*3A*2F*2Fus-phishalarm-ewt.proofpoint.com*2FEWT*2Fv1*2FKGKeukY!vYQd06iujQpO4fa9FG0vmZSlZ5rO1rfm826E5w_8ZvZlaDYSUB0yx1hlvS42UJGsRH19HnOgFUz3CxAgkUX3TOLdVGtDLekSvOc6UWHE00IUOEPnKoLIT_qOneLhHTU*24&data=04*7C01*7Cm.oneill*40leedstrinity.ac.uk*7Cb80411d37cf44c39d91008da129dc1f2*7Cdf4c20ba64a84352b3f947881abbc09a*7C0*7C0*7C637842766029049438*7CUnknown*7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0*3D*7C3000&sdata=WhuY3GbEcnH3RWpaBQsnl0ZiBSiKEkCd4AUGg7mp8yY*3D&reserved=0__;JSUlJSUlJSUlJSUlJSUlJSUlJSU!!KGKeukY!hOVY1eiRPg5oKR6BdqYs1e0U49C4LKfvsIA_n5VDpa7uLUr-7D-NDDR4eEE99ZXJumo$ >   ?
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Hi all, actually I am desperately seeking pictures of VW laughing, from anywhere!!

I saw this one online, but it doesn't say where it is from.  Does anyone have a clue? it would be perfect for my purposes if it were not such a pixilated one.

[cid:image001.jpg at 01D8448F.531A3C30]

If you know of sources of any laughing Virginias, do share! best, Leslie
--
Leslie Kathleen Hankins
Professor, Chair
Department of English & Creative Writing

"No doubt we should be, on the whole, much worse off than we are without our astonishing gift for illusion."
                   Virginia Woolf, Jacob's Room

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