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Archive for December, 2022

New Year’s Eve advice from Virginia Woolf: “Stay, this moment”

Posted in diaries, tagged , , , on Saturday 31 December 2022| Leave a Comment »

On Saturday, Dec. 31, 1932, Virginia Woolf wrote a relatively long entry in her diary. I include a portion of that entry here:

This is in fact the last day of 1932, but I am so tired of polishing off Flush–such a pressure on the brain is caused by doing ten pages daily — that I am taking a morning off, & shall use it here, in my lazy way, to sum up the whole of life. By that phrase, one of my colloquialities, I only mean, I wish I could deliver myself of a picture of all my friends, thoughts, doings, projects at this moment . . .

For example, with Julian & Lettice Ramsay last night — why not simply become fluid in their lives, if my own is dim? And to use ones hands & eyes; to talk to people; to be a straw on the river, now & then — passive, not striving to say this is this. If one does not lie back & sum up & say to the moment, this very moment, stay you are so fair, what will be one’s gain, dying? No: stay, this moment. No one ever says that enough. — Diary 4, pp. 134-5.

Read on for Woolf’s New Year’s resolutions for 1931 and 1936.

 

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Third Albani Woolf pamphlet features Talland House

Posted in art, books, St. Ives, Talland House, Virginia Woolf, tagged , , , , , on Wednesday 14 December 2022| Leave a Comment »

The Sea Blazed Gold is Louisa Albani’s latest illustrated pamphlet featuring Virginia Woolf, and its publication coincided with the Sept. 11 unveiling of the plaque at Talland House that commemorates Woolf’s connection with the seaside town of St. Ives in Cornwall.

Talland House was Woolf’s summertime home in St. Ives from 1882-1894. Her father, Leslie Stephen, had the lease on Talland House from 1878-1895.

Third featuring Woolf

The Sea Blazed Gold is the third of Albani’s pamphlets to feature Woolf. The first, A Moment In The Life Of Virginia Woolf, explored how the author created her vivid seascapes while living in Tavistock Square in London. The second, The Journey to my Sister’s House, focused on her time in the South Downs, where her sister Vanessa Bell lived.

The Sea Blazed Gold takes its title from a passage in Woolf’s 1931 novel The Waves. In it, Albani weaves her artwork with excerpts from Woolf’s diaries, letters and novels to celebrate Woolf’s time in St. Ives and its impact on her life.

The artist uses mixed media, including collage, metallic stitching and pen and ink in the 36-page publication printed on her own press.Text contributors include Maggie Humm, one of the leaders of the campaign for the Talland House plaque, and writer Astra Bloom.

Purchase and shipping details

The cost of The Sea Blazed Gold is £13. Albani’s press, Night Bird Press, limits its shipment of pamphlets to within the UK. For overseas shipping, contact Nash Robbins at Much Ado Books: shop@muchadobooks.com

Read more on the topic in the October/November issue of My Cornwall.

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Virginia Woolf as meditation inspiration

Posted in quotes, Woolf sightings, tagged , , , , on Monday 12 December 2022| Leave a Comment »

I use the app Insight Timer on pretty much a daily basis. The app features a quote from a famous person each day. What a nice surprise when I saw that today’s quote was from Virginia Woolf.

The quote, certainly a source of inspiration, comes from The Waves (1931). The full text reads:

I feel a thousand capacities spring up in me. I am arch, gay, languid, melancholy by turns. I am rooted, but I flow.

Here is a screenshot of the quote as it appeared on the app. 

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See Met Opera “The Hours” at a movie theater near you

Posted in events, Mrs. Dalloway, music, tagged , , , , on Tuesday 6 December 2022| 1 Comment »

It has played to sold-out audiences since it premiered on stage at New York’s Lincoln Center on Nov. 22. PBS Newshour called it, “The opera event of the year.” A Variety review claimed, “it’s Woolf who’ll make you swoon.”

Now, whether we can get to New York or not, we have the chance to see the Metropolitan Opera’s version of Michael Cunningham’s 1998 Pulitzer prize-winning novel The Hours, which was based on Virginia Woolf’s novel Mrs. Dalloway (1925).

See it in a theater near you

How? The opera version of The Hours is coming to theaters around the country as a Fathom event and as part of the Met’s award-winning Live in HD series. Tickets for this three-hour-plus event range from $18 to $24.

The live performance in English will screen at 12:55 p.m EST on Dec. 10 with encore showings at 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. EST on Dec. 14.

Search for the theater closest to your location on The Hours page on the Fathom Events website.

Trio of heroines

Soprano Renée Fleming, soprano Kelli O’Hara and mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato play the roles of the opera’s trio of heroines. Kevin Puts is the composer and Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts.

The opera is set in London suburb Richmond in 1923, LA in 1949, and Manhattan at the end of the twentieth century.

“The mere fact of this opera’s existence does an interesting thing: It cements ‘The Hours’ as a foundational piece of contemporary art,” according to Daniel D’Addario’s review in Variety. The Hours is on The Met stage through Dec. 15.

Rave reviews, a synopsis, and a program

You can read more rave reviews from critics, prepare for the performance by reading a synopsis, and download a program.

Woolf’s words live on through the generations, and the concerns and troubled thoughts of women echo, too, no matter how much progress seems to be made in the world outside Virginia, Laura, and Clarissa’s minds. – “‘The Hours,’ in Its Latest Adaptation, Is a Stunning Triumph for the Met: Opera Review,” Variety.

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Two more for your Virginia Woolf puzzle stash

Posted in commodification, tagged , , on Monday 5 December 2022| Leave a Comment »

Even though I wasn’t looking for puzzles that include Virginia Woolf, my search for a Christmas puzzle led me to two more puzzles that do.

Years ago, Cecil Woolf sent me an envelope with this canceled Virginia Woolf stamp.

As readers of this blog know, I have written about Woolf puzzle finds several times before — in May of 2020,in September of that year, and  just last month.

Today I share a puzzle that features a Woolf stamp, although I cannot find any evidence that the stamp of Vanessa Bell’s portrait of Woolf, was actually produced. The other puzzle features Bell’s cover of To the Lighthouse.

Two latest finds

Woolf puzzles from the past

The Woolf stamp is in the second row from the bottom, third from the left.

To the Lighthouse is the book cover in the top row, second from right.

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