This week’s Woolf sightings include Woolf novels read by famous voices #21-23, Woolf as a top 10 Sheba #30 and Woolf in a graphic novel #56.

1. Audacious, enjoyable bilingual co-production from Scottish and Québécois companies, The List
   The eponymous heroine of this enjoyable co-production between Scotland’s Stellar Quines and Québécois company Imago Théâtre is one of those everlasting figures present throughout history, a cross between Virginia Woolf’s Orlando and Dr Who, ..
2. American Mavericks review: ‘Barstow’ a highlight, San Francisco Chronicle
   The first performance of Morton Subotnick’s monodrama “Jacob’s Room” wound up Sunday’s concert, a somber and dramatically static treatment of both Virginia Woolf and Nicholas Gage’s war memoir “Eleni” with La Barbara as soloist.
3. The Monday Book: Pantheon by Sam Bourne, The Independent
   … he is encountering passionate advocates of the theory of eugenics — notions of perfecting the race seriously entertained by such 20th-century intellectuals as Bertrand Russell, George Bernard Shaw, HG Wells, John Maynard Keynes and Virginia Woolf.
4. Pens and ink still have the write stuff, Global Edmonton
   The research began when Bishop looked into how some small, private presses had published books by Virginia Woolf and James Joyce. He asked a librarian for the go-to text on ink, and was told there wasn’t one. “That’s kind of where the seed was planted.
5. Q&A: Alison Bechdel, Author of Are You My Mother?: A Comic Drama, Library Journal
   This is your To the Lighthouse, though, in the way that you intercut so many people’s biographies—from Winnicott’s to Virginia Woolf’s. Your voracious synthesis of seemingly disparate sources is a clear sign that you’re a novelist.
6. The Best-Laid Teaching Schemes, Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription)
   When we’re covering James Joyce in 50 minutes on Monday, Virginia Woolf on Wednesday, and TS Eliot on Friday, are we really helping them learn content that they understand, that matters to them, and that will remain in their brains beyond the span of …
7. The first ‘maverick’ chamber music program, Examiner.com
   The point of departure was Virginia Woolf’s novel of the same name, but with excursions into Eleni, Nicholas Gage’s 1983 memoir of his mother’s execution during the Greek civil war. Here, again, La Barbara’s amplification seemed to work against the …
8. Book events, Arizona Daily Star
   Virginia Woolf’s “A Room of One’s Own.” Presented by Bill Fry. 10 am-noon. March 15. Free. 229-5300. Main Library Book Club – Joel D. Valdez Main Library, 101 N. Stone Ave. “Mudbound” by Hillary Jordan. Noon-1 pm March 15. Free. 791-4010.
9. “Eernal Equinox” – Where Love, Freedom and Art Mingle, Examiner.com
   “Eternal Equinox,” a Grove Theater Center production at 59E59 Theaters, takes place in 1923 on an imagined day in the life of artist Vanessa Bell (wife of Clive Bell, a man of many mistresses, and sister to Virginia Woolf), played by Hollis McCarthy, …
10. Florence + the Machine, Alexandra Palace, The Arts Desk
    … a song about having pockets full of stones, and suddenly you realise where you’ve seen that statuesque beauty (I think the preferred euphemism is “Roman”) and the rather strictly tied back hairdo: it’s mad old Virginia Woolf, everybody!
11. What’s family dinner without spite and booze?, Winnipeg Free Press
    It could be renamed Long Day’s Journey With Virginia Woolf on a Hot Tin Roof for the profane frankness with which the brood’s alcoholism, drug addiction, incest and suicide is revealed. What stands out is the gleeful nastiness on display that has the …
12. Flourish at the Barbican Theatre, Plymouth, This is Plymouth
    … work includes choreography/performance by Saffy Setohy, dramaturgy by Alicia Grace, sound by Nick Mott and video by Charlotte Jackman. Shore-Line was inspired by the female soliloquies and coastal themes in the literary work of Virginia Woolf.
13. A Shed of One’s Own: middle age as a rolling series of crises, The National
    Just as Virginia Woolf’s room for women was not a real room, so Marcus Berkmann’s shed for middle-aged men is a metaphor. The problem with middle age, he feels, is that the detritus of modern life offers little mental respite.
14. Naked truth: Lust isn’t always more, New York Post
    Set at Charleston, the country home shared by the unmarried lovers Bell and Grant — and a meeting place for Bell’s sister, Virginia Woolf, and EM Forster, among others — the play takes place in 1923, the year before Mallory (Christian Pedersen) makes …
15. Audible Launches New Audiobook Series Featuring Hollywood Stars, Huffington Post
    … Susan Sarandon and Kate Winslet. Each audiobook costs $14.95 and lasts several hours – in the case of Kate Winslet’s reading of “Therese Raquin” by Emile Zola, eight of them. • Annette Bening reading “Mrs. Dalloway” by Virginia Woolf.
16. About the British Library’s current exhibition, The Guardian
    Featuring a range of stunning items, some of which have never been seen before, Writing Britain will draw on the breadth of the Library’s collections to explore how writers from Chaucer and Shakespeare to Virginia Woolf and Hanif Kureishi have been …
17. Unconventional ‘Carmen’ photos take center stage at Charles Krause/Reporting …, Washington Post
    Most of the 11 women’s names are from ancient times and sources, although a few derive from feminist icons of more recent vintage: pioneering 17th-century painter Artemisia Gentileschi, “A Room of One’s Own” author Virginia Woolf and “The Girl With the …
18. The Black Sheep of Broadway, New York Post
    This domestic drama sounds straight out of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?-but it’s a real-life saga, pulled from New York State Supreme Court records chronicling the war between Eric Nederlander and his soon-to-be ex-wife, …
19. Criminal charges filed against 4 Occupy Cal protestors, Berkeleyside
    I participated in the Occupy Cal rally on Sproul Plaza on November 9 (my sign, “We’re Afraid for Virginia Woolf,” made it to the Daily Cal’s top 10) and stayed for the general assembly. The organizers of Occupy Cal asked those who were willing to stay …
20. A Room of One’s Own addresses women’s rights, Georgia Today (subscription)
    The title comes from English writer Virginia Woolf’s book-length essay of the same name according to which “a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to make something worthy.” The exhibition is conceptually designed to fit the feminist …
21. Anne Hathaway, Samuel L. Jackson and other celebrities record books for Audible, New York Daily News (blog)
    Even more exciting is the forthcoming Colin Firth version of Graham Greene’s “The End of the Affair” and Nicole Kidman’s “To the Lighthouse,” the Virginia Woolf masterpiece. There will also be recordings by Naomi Watts (“Summer,” by Edith Wharton), …
22. Audible Launches New Series With Famous Voices, Publishers Weekly
    The titles are available as part of Audible’s membership, which lets subscribers download any single book for free with a 30-day trial, and after that is $14.95 a month. Annette Bening reading Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf.
23. Google to Add Audiobooks to Google Play, Good E-Reader (blog)
    Some examples include – Naomi Watts (”Summer,” by Edith Wharton), Dustin Hoffman (”Being There,” by Jerzy Kosinski), Annette Bening (”Mrs. Dalloway,” by Virginia Woolf), Samuel L. Jackson (”A Rage in Harlem,” by Chester Himes) and Kim Basinger (”The …
24. The feminisation of madness is crazy, The Guardian
    … a world that equates female genius too closely with insanity: from the madwoman in the attic in Jane Eyre and Shakespeare’s Ophelia to Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Dorothy Parker – maybe even Amy Winehouse.
25. We Take Care of Right-Wing Nonsense about Bruce…, The Nation. (blog)
    … Acorn’s documentary line Athena, of IN THEIR OWN WORDS, a series which features interviews and short readings by Sigmund Freud, George Orwell, Ian Fleming, Evelyn Waugh, among many others, and the only surviving voice recording of Virginia Woolf.
26. Come on, women, let’s stop sweating the small stuff, Irish Independent
    Virginia Woolf’s essay, ‘A Room of One’s Own’, proposes the theory that women lacked power because they had neither the time, space or financial independence to think. More than 80 years later, women remain absent from seats of power.
27. Slideshow: Southease – picture-book pretty, Sussex Express
    Interestingly the body of Sussex writer Virginia Woolf was found at Asham Wharf, on the east bank of the Ouse, to the north of the bridge, after she committed suicide. The village enjoys several community events during the year, including the Spring …
28. Oscar’s checkered past, Bennington Banner
    Sandy Dennis gave her “Virginia Woolf” Oscar to her business manager, whether out of kindness or the wish to make a subtly damning statement is anyone’s guess. Not having seen any of the major winners, I’m afraid I can’t comment on the results of the …
29. Fun between the covers with long-dead strangers, The Canberra Times
    I was recently reading the memoirs of Leonard Woolf, the publisher, author, and husband to Virginia. At one point, he wrote of his wife’s madness, arguing that there is no easy split between sanity and insanity. ”Everyone,” he wrote in Beginning ..
30. Top 10 Sheiks and Shebas of the 1920s from Vixen author Jillian Larkin, Sugarscape
    I would settle back into a booth and imagine Virginia Woolf on my left and EM Forster on my right. I still can’t get over how many remarkable people hit their professional peaks within the same marvelous decade! With that in mind, I’ve put together a …
31. Fitzrovia goes Ga Ga goo, Fitzrovia News
    From Charles Dickens and Virginia Woolf to Malcolm McLaren (the founder of the Sex Pistols,) by way of Dylan Thomas and Oscar Wilde, many have moved to Fitzrovia to seek their muse. Here at FN our humble team now wonders where the 25 year old New …
32. Queer Girl City Guide: Brighton, UK, Autostraddle
    Also apparently Virginia Woolf and her lover Vita had sexytime here! The safest go-to club night is “Girls on Top” on Thursdays at Revenge. The club is the biggest gay dancing establishment in the South East of England and attracts hundreds of girls …
33. Pay gap between women and men: EU must act, says opinion poll, European Parliament (press release)
    Mr Gustafsson said: “Virginia Woolf spoke out about the importance for women to have a room of one’s own. It is less well known that she also spoke out about the need for women to have money of their own. It was true then – and it is true today.
34. Devotionals of Planets and Pop, New York Times
    Singing in an assertive yet girlish coo with a fluidity that attested to lessons in Indian devotional music, Ms. Holter effectively pared down songs that converse knowingly with Virginia Woolf and Frank O’Hara, preserving their lyrical integrity and …
35. We have to see to it if being a slut is that easy, Hurriyet Daily News (press release)
    As Virginia Woolf has always said, we will write without thinking what men would say. Both for the woman in Iraq, and also for the woman in the Aegean,” explained Hangül as she described their road map. They will write because in our country women are …
36. Uncollected Collections: John Updike’s ‘Higher Gossip: Essays and Criticism’, PopMatters
    This segues into a series of reviews that edify both the lay reader and would-be critic: of the biographer Hermione Lee, Updike suggests she personally prefers Virginia Woolf to Edith Wharton, a subtle indicator of how very well read Updike was.
37. Daniel Land & The Modern Painters Announce New Album, Altsounds.com
    Other literary references that occur throughout the album are too numerous to mention but Daniel identifies the likes of Virginia Woolf, Edmund White, Pier Vittorio Tondelli, Joseph Olshan, Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and, ‘erm, Stephen King’ as …
38. Iranians to learn about The Grotesque, Iran Book News Agency
    Farzaneh Taheri has translated theoretic and literary books such as ‘Metaphor’ by Terence Hawkes, ‘Expressionism’ by RS Furness, ‘Literary Theory: a very short introduction’ by Jonathan Culler, ‘Mrs. Dalloway’ by Virginia Woolf, ‘Structuralism in …
39. In Their Own Words, DVD Talk
    The first episode, “Among the Ruins: 1919-1939,” goes into some depth on the Virginia Woolf-encircling Bloomsbury Group, which also encompassed some of the other great novelists of the period, such as EM Forster (A Passage to India, Howards End) and …
40. The Depressing Reality of Women Directed Films in 2012, Indie Wire (blog)
    Your argument is the old, tired, worn-out drivel addressed nearly a hundred years ago by Virginia Woolf (Please catch up! It’s pathetic that I’m having to repeat something written by Woolf so long ago in response to the same sad, tired arguments …
41. Creativity may save us from tide of technology, The Independent
    She was cycling to visit Virginia Woolf in Rodmel, Sussex, but felt anxious about her lack of a corset. So she dropped into a shop in a local village and bought a birdcage. She was later found, by other arriving lunch guests, in a hedgerow, …
42. Media Release: 1000 National Treasures Captured in New Edition of The Most …, PR Web (press release)
    Heritage destinations like the Astor family’s London mansion Two Temple Place or Virginia Woolf’s own rooms at Monk’s House, join recent attractions like Glasgow’s stunning and futuristic Riverside Transport Museum and the Turner Contemporary on the …
43. Boris is better at his job than fighting elections battles, Evening Standard
    Ever since Virginia Woolf, the liberal Left have been in anguish over their relationships with their staff. But friendship can be a cover for unreasonable demands. In Los Angeles, for instance, Mexican “friends” look to me to be closer to slave labour.
44. HOME EXCHANGE – MAKING THE LONDON OLYMPICS AFFORDABLE, TravPR.com (press release)
    In short, it may not be haunted by the ghost of Virginia Woolf, but at least it’s not haunted! Moreover, its location makes it ideal to get to the Olympic park – this really being a major bonus.” Gloria, Joe and daughter, Harper are exchanging their …
45. Women who write and the androgyny of great writing, Sunday’s Zaman
    “We all need heroes, but we don’t need heroes of whom we are uncritical, because unless we criticize them we can’t find the heroism in ourselves,” the 64 –year-old author said, adding: “When Virginia Woolf came to İstanbul at the age of twenty-four, …
46. New Republic Gets an Owner Steeped in New Media, New York Times (blog)
    Founded in 1914 by the political journalist Walter Lippmann, it has long been a part of the liberal movement, counting presidents as readers, including John F. Kennedy, and luminaries as writers, including George Orwell, Virginia Woolf and Philip Roth.
47. Local composer Argento honored by University of Maryland, Pioneer Press
    Many of the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer’s most famous pieces will be performed, including “From the Diary of Virginia Woolf,” “Miss Manners on Music” and “A Water Bird Talk.” The festival reaches its peak between April 20 and 29, when 20 events …
48. Alain de Botton’s Desert Island Books, Huffington Post UK (blog)
    I’d love to go on holiday with Virginia Woolf. She’d be super observant, catty, fun – and (on good day) excellent company. We’d gossip about our fellow guests in a hotel, eavesdrop on people in shops and (perhaps) try some jetskiing, which Woolf would …
49. ‘Friends with Kids’, Lackluster Comedy, College Times
    We’re talking Virginia Woolf levels of bitterness, pent up frustrated and barely masked hatred. Doesn’t sound like it fits inside a romantic comedy? It doesn’t. Unfortunately, it’s also the best part of this movie. One scene does not make a film.
50. March of the women: discovering classical music’s forgotten voices, The Guardian
    Virginia Woolf said you need £500 per year and a room with a lock on the door if you’re going to write fiction. How much more is that the case when you’re composing music where to make a gesture that lasts a split second could take you two weeks, …
51. A Life’s Profusion of Blooms, Pittsburgh Post Gazette
    Mr. Goodwin, who is renowned for his graduate seminars on the Bloomsbury Group — paintings by Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant and tiles from Virginia Woolf’s garden table are tucked about the house — strolled into the garden at sunset.
52. Review for flats plan at Conan Doyle’s Undershaw, Get Surrey
    He entertained notable figures there, including Bram Stoker, author of Dracula, Peter Pan creator JM Barrie, and Virginia Woolf. Conan Doyle built the house so his wife, who was suffering from tuberculosis, could benefit from a healthy environment and …
53. A Tribute to Mary…, About – News & Issues
    Besides being the “mother of feminism,” she’s famous as the mother of Mary Shelley (author of Frankenstein), and for inspiring other women like Virginia Woolf. Mary Wollstonecraft died shortly after giving birth to her daughter, but she left behind a …
54. A day in the life of… Virginia Woolf, Student Direct
    Rachel Longworth spends 24 hours as the Bloomsbury behemoth, but stops short of hurling herself into a lake. A panda eats, shoots and leaves to extinction? I woke up in the morning- it was a splendid morning too, looked out of my window, …
55. The killer comeback, Times LIVE
    David Cecil, Desmond Tutu, Khanyi Mbau, Nelson Mandela and Virginia Woolf – oh, stuff the order – these people, big and small, dead and alive, have uttered some of my favourite retorts. Period. Forget Winston Churchill, who had such a flair for this …
56. Graphic Novels & Art-Comics – March 2012, A.V. Club New York
    But the most devastating story in Athos In America is “The Brain That Wouldn’t Virginia Woolf,” in which the love affair between a bickering couple—a scientist and his wife’s disembodied head—is told backward, beginning in bitter acrimony and then …
57. “When in Doubt, Seduce”, New York Magazine
    “Alex North stood up to the studio for me on Virginia Woolf … try this tres leches flavor, it’s delicious … can you make that trumpet get louder and louder?” His response to the music is no less acute for the cloud of doughnut dust it emerges from; …
58. Film fest to mark 75th International Women’s Day, Times of India
    The Hours, Stephen Daldry’s award-winning American drama, featuring Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore and Meryl Streep, depicts three women of different generations whose lives are interconnected by Virginia Woolf’s novel Mrs Dalloway.
59. Did Michael Jackson Have Autism?, Autism Key (blog)
    It has been speculated that Virginia Woolf, William Shakespeare, Hans Christian Anderson, Goethe, Alexander Graham Bell, Emily Dickinson, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Catherine the Great and Leonardo da Vinci all had some form of autism.
60. I’ll Just Admit It… Why I’m Not a Patriot, Patheos (blog)
    This is the first line of a Virginia Woolf quote, ” As a woman I have no country. as a woman my country is the whole world”. A small part of my worried that some might assume I am denouncing the US and all it has afforded me. Hardly.
61. Eat Like a Peasant and Other Ways to Slash Your Grocery Bill, SecondAct (satire) (blog)
    I agree with Virginia Woolf, who famously said, “One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” And for most of us, dining well just means taking a little extra time to properly season and cook simple foods.

Read Full Post »