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<DIV>I am curious as to how Mr. Ritchie obtained access to Woolf’s *unpublished*
diaries? She wrote to and about Elizabeth Bowen quite a bit during the
1930s and although she did not seem to regard Bowen as a very close friend I
don’t recall that she expressed more than some ambivalence about her.
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<DIV style="font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=pat.laurence@gmail.com>Pat
Laurence</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Saturday, September 11, 2021 9:34 PM</DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=mark.travis@frontier.com>Mark Scott</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Cc:</B> <A title=ellen.moody@gmail.com>Ellen Moody</A> ; <A
title=mefoleyuk@gmail.com>Mary Ellen Foley</A> ; <A
title=vwoolf@lists.osu.edu>Vwoolf@lists.osu.edu</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> Re: [Vwoolf] (no subject)</DIV></DIV></DIV>
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<DIV class=gmail_default>Apropos the Oliver article on Woolf's "rudeness."</DIV>
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<P><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: hnffbmkbtmjmvlffbfagaramondpro">Elizabeth
Bowen and Woolf were friends. Bowen and Charles</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: hnffbmkbtmjmvlffbfagaramondpro"> Ritchie,
her lover, discussed Woolf in 1956, and he ruefully noted in his journal that
</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: hnffbmkbtmjmvlffbfagaramondpro">Woolf's
unpublished diaries revealed that she “had no fondness for her friends including
E." When he related this to Bowen, she did not take offense, coolly noting,
“perhaps her affection was intermittent (as mine is for so many people).” Bowen,
in kind, related to Ritchie and in letters to Rosamond Lehmann her dislike of
Bloomsbury's "in-growingness" and "smugness," inspiring feelings of
claustrophobia. But she was drawn to </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: hnffbmkbtmjmvlffbfagaramondpro">Woolf, her
laughter and like-minded mischief—as well admiration for her writing, "like no
other." She loved her comic exuberance, and their friendship she wrote, was
“chiefly laughter and pleasure, and on entering, in her company, into the
rapture caused her by the unexpected, the spectacular, the inordinate, the
improbable, and the preposterous.”</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 7pt; FONT-FAMILY: hnffbmkbtmjmvlffbfagaramondpro; VERTICAL-ALIGN: 4pt; COLOR: rgb(0,0,250)"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: hnffbmkbtmjmvlffbfagaramondpro">Bowen
believed the “spring and principle of her art was joy.”</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 7pt; FONT-FAMILY: hnffbmkbtmjmvlffbfagaramondpro; VERTICAL-ALIGN: 4pt; COLOR: rgb(0,0,250)"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: hnffbmkbtmjmvlffbfagaramondpro">In 1958,
she wrote to William Plomer on the fringes of Bloomsbury, confiding that only he
seemed “able to bring back Virginia’s laughter—I get so </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: lbdmdxllwdxgsssmpjagaramondpro; FONT-STYLE: italic">bored
</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: hnffbmkbtmjmvlffbfagaramondpro">and irked
by that tragic fiction which has been manufactured about her since
1941.”</SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: hnffbmkbtmjmvlffbfagaramondpro">Pat
Laurence</SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: hnffbmkbtmjmvlffbfagaramondpro">from my
biography,<I> Elizabeth Bowen, A Literary
Life</I></SPAN></P></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV>
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<DIV class=gmail_attr dir=ltr>On Sat, Sep 11, 2021 at 5:58 PM Mark Scott via
Vwoolf <<A target=_blank>vwoolf@lists.osu.edu</A>> wrote:<BR></DIV>
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<DIV>As a Common Reader, my thoughts on this article centered on a couple of
things. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I have been reading Woolf’s letters for some time now and I have finally
reached the summer of 1939 when the Woolfs are about to move to Mecklenburg
Square. Around the time when the first concept for ‘The Waves’ began to
emerge, I started to read the diary entries for the time periods that the
correspondence covered. (I had read the diaries some time before I had
even acquired the six volumes of the letter.) What struck me about the
article with regard to Woolf’s alleged ‘nastiness’ was that the author was
basing his judgments of Woolf’s character on written remarks that were made in
journals that were not meant to be read by anybody but Woolf herself, my point
being that she wasn’t verbally making these less than flattering comments
directly to the people she was describing. How many of us have had
negative thoughts about people we encounter in our lives or acquaintances or
even close friends or family? Maybe we never verbalize these thoughts
and they may be judgments or conclusions that flared up in a moment of
annoyance or anger that we later dismissed or forgot. It just so happens
that Woolf recorded many of her rather pointed observations about people in
her private diaries. They were not meant to be made known to the people
she described. In other words, they were not malicious attacks made
directly at human targets. It is true that close replications of her
remarks often ended up in her letters, especially letters written to her
sister, Vanessa Bell. But, again, that was private correspondence
usually addressed to family or close friends that she knew she could trust not
to pass those comments on to anyone who might repeat them to their
objects. <BR><BR>My other observation is that, as is usually the case,
the tired, unfortunately repetitious description of Woolf as the mad, elitist,
depressed writer who ultimately committed suicide leaves out what has been
evident to me since I first read ‘Orlando’; Woolf’s incisive and often
scintillating wit. Maybe it says something about my own personality but
I often find myself laughing at Woolf’s imaginative puncturing of what may or
may not have been overly inflated egos. It’s true that sometimes her
jabs do feel like they were aimed at undeserving targets. That being
said, I would love to have been the proverbial fly on the wall during some of
the conversations between Woolf and some of her close friends and
family. Great intellect on display flavored with the spice of brilliant
wit. That’s what I hear in my imagination.<BR><BR>Mark Scott<BR>Common
Reader </DIV>
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<DIV><B>From:</B> <A title=vwoolf@lists.osu.edu>Ellen Moody via Vwoolf</A>
</DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Saturday, September 11, 2021 6:56 AM</DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=mefoleyuk@gmail.com>Mary Ellen Foley</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Cc:</B> <A title=vwoolf@lists.osu.edu>Vwoolf@lists.osu.edu</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> Re: [Vwoolf] (no subject)</DIV></DIV></DIV>
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<DIV dir=ltr>I thought it was appalling too, and asked myself when will
people tire of using what is popularly supposed of Virginia Woolf as
matter for a whipping post. Ellen</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV class=gmail_quote>
<DIV class=gmail_attr dir=ltr>On Sat, Sep 11, 2021 at 9:42 AM Mary Ellen Foley
via Vwoolf <<A>vwoolf@lists.osu.edu</A>> wrote:<BR></DIV>
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<DIV dir=ltr>Beware! To my eye, at least, the article may begin as a
comment on troll-ery, but it became something else entirely, outlining
Woolf's supposed five deaths, just in case we haven't harped enough on her
suicide, dwelling on snobbery above all else, damning her work with faint
praise, and getting enough tiny details wrong that could have been checked,
that the effect was of contempt: the author didn't bother to
check. (The worst example, possibly: No, it doesn't matter how many
stories the Stephen family house had, unless you give the number of
residents, undercount the number of stories by a factor of two, and make a
point about overcrowding With 5 above ground level and one below, the
enormous family and their servants did not occupy a 3-story house -- no big
deal, except that it's easily checkable, and he makes a point of how packed
in they were, linking that to her wish for a room of one's own, which of
course is a mistaken understanding of what she meant by "a room of one's
own." Even if he was referring to the years before the top floor was
added, this is very sloppy work.)<BR><BR>I made the mistake of reading some
of the comments. This is a civilized site, so the comments were
courteous, but that only means that many simply used more polite language in
dismissing Woolf in the same way she is generally dismissed by
detractors. (If you aren't a member, you can see only a selection of
comments; I visited twice and was shown different comments, but the
selection was possibly not representative.)<BR><BR>I totally agree that the
Woolf who/that has been constructed in more recent times serves as a figure
on whom we can hang whatever ideas we like; that is because this figure has
been crafted by articles such as this one, doing the same.
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Unfortunately, I read this first thing this morning. I hadn't wanted to
begin the day so irritated!</DIV>
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<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Mary Ellen</DIV></DIV></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV class=gmail_quote>
<DIV class=gmail_attr dir=ltr>On Fri, Sep 10, 2021 at 7:27 PM Andre Gerard
via Vwoolf <<A>vwoolf@lists.osu.edu</A>> wrote:<BR></DIV>
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<DIV dir=ltr>Woolf as a guide to our troll tormented times: <A
href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://unherd.com/2021/08/why-was-virginia-woolf-so-rude/__;!!KGKeukY!nf304ToEUjNd-Nsi_srJ4SrBkBCO1jUg3xAZQI-lYN5-9Mo3_0r0qTsgpJKtDF_daT8$"
target=_blank>https://unherd.com/2021/08/why-was-virginia-woolf-so-rude/</A></DIV>_______________________________________________<BR>Vwoolf
mailing list<BR><A>Vwoolf@lists.osu.edu</A><BR><a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://listsosu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vwoolf__;!!KGKeukY!gQ7Vp8ZjeD2PMAGA5-hNOXZkBRffvAJ67ZzhGC4B2JjQSb5wxrZMLTJn2z4RNzwYSTs$" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vwoolf</A><BR></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV>_______________________________________________<BR>Vwoolf
mailing list<BR><A>Vwoolf@lists.osu.edu</A><BR><A
href="https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vwoolf" rel=noreferrer
target=_blank>https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vwoolf</A><BR></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV>
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_______________________________________________<BR>Vwoolf mailing list<BR><A
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