Dogs and Virginia Woolf is the subject of a newly published long-form essay by Mireille Duchene, author of Virginia Woolf, An Unpublished Notebook (1907-1909). Published in French, Entre chiens et Woolf, une affaire de femmes (EUD, Essais) (Between Dogs and Woolf: A Women’s Affair) is in the form of a revisited biography.

In this 146-page essay, Duchene investigates the issues of animals in literature and gender and identity.

Woolf, women and dogs

The essay explores the unique relationship between Woolf and her dogs and the place they hold in her daily life and imagination.

Duchene discusses the dog Woolf had in childhood, as well as the dogs of her powerful female friends, Violet Dickinson, Vita Sackville-West, and Ethel Smyth, mistresses of a chow-chow, a greyhound and sheepdogs. hag, Woolf’s faithful terrier companion, of whom Woolf wrote a funny and touching obituary for The Guardian, which is reprinted in French in Entre chiens et Woolf, une affaire de femmes.

More on Woolf and dogs

An earlier work discussing this topic is Shaggy Muses: The Dogs Who Inspired Virginia Woolf, Emily Dickinson, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Edith Wharton and Emily Bronte.