The way I see it, there are several connections between Greta Gerwig, her blockbuster film Barbie, and Virginia Woolf. Here we go:
One of Gerwig’s all-time favorite books is Woolf’s To the Lighthouse (1927). It is, she notes, “A classic for a reason. My mind was warped into a new shape by her prose, and it will never be the same again. The metaphysics she presents in the book are enacted in a way that allowed me to begin to understand that corner of philosophy.”
In A Room of One’s Own (1929), Woolf writes that “a woman must have a room of her own” in order to write fiction. In Barbie, all of the Barbies have entire dream houses of their own — and they find such ownership essential to their independent, feminist lifestyles.
An NPR story on the film includes this quote: “But Barbie could fend for herself. Like Nancy Drew, she drove her own roadster and lived in her own dream house — Virginia Woolf’s room of one’s own painted in pastels.”
From Second Wind Books comes this Facebook post that lists the similarities between Woolf and Barbie:
From Woolf scholar and novelist Maggie Humm comes this Twitter post:
Obligatory Barbie photo. Loved the artifice (like Asteroid City my last movie outing) pic.twitter.com/yzETjzw79J
The news that Virginia Woolf’s personal copy of The Voyage Out (1915), discovered in 2021 after mistakenly being housed in the science section of the University of Sydney’s Fisher Library for 25 years, is all over the internet. But the best news is that the volume has been digitized and is now available online.
It is one of just two copies of the novel that were annotated with her handwriting and with preparations to revise it for a U.S. edition.
A private collector based in London owns the other. It has typesetter’s marks and a greater number of revisions, including those to other chapters, but without the chapter 25 revisions, according to the library website.
The digitization of Woolf’s novel allows scholars and readers around the globe to study and consider Woolf’s edits from their own armchairs.
More background
In the 1996 article “Virginia Woolf’s Revisions of The Voyage out: Some New Evidence” by James M. Haule, published in Vol. 42, No. 3 of Twentieth Century Literature, Haule explains the story behind this rediscovered book, saying it was a working copy that appears to be one of two in which Woolf marked up revisions of her novel for the first U.S. edition, published in 1920.
It is thought that the Fisher Library copy was kept by Woolf as a record of the main revisions, with the other being sent for use in publication, according to the library website.
“With the possible exception of The Years (1937), none of her novels was as long in preparation or as difficult for her to complete,” Haule maintains.
About the edits
Inscribed by the author on the flyleaf, the volume includes handwritten revisions to chapters 16 and 25 made by Woolf’s own hand in pen and in blue and brown pencil.
In Chapter 25, whole pages are marked for deletion, although they were ultimately not removed for the first U.S. edition, published in 1920. The volume also includes pasted-in typewritten carbons in chapter 16.
The fact that Woolf signed on the volume’s flyleaf, not the title page, indicates that it was one of her personal copies, experts say.
Where the volume came from
The University of Sydney acquired the book in the 1976 through Bow Windows Bookshop in Lewes, East Sussex, near the Woolfs’ Monk’s House. The shop currently has some first editions of Woolf’s works on hand, including a copy of The Voyage Out, at least when this piece was written. The price? £600.
The Berg Collection at the New York Public Library holds a holograph draft of The Voyage Out.
NKP Theatre Company’s production of a 50-minute adaptation of Eileen Atkins’ play “Vita & Virginia” will be on stage at the Edinburgh Fringe at 21:20 Aug. 7-12.
The play was recently staged for members of the Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain and received a wonderful endorsement from Claire Nicholson, society chair:
This is an assured, touching and poignant production; a beautifully sensitive portrayal of a remarkable love story.
About the show
Ticket price: £12 (£10 concessions) Booking: Book here. Location: The Edinburgh Fringe, theSpace@Niddry Street, Edinburgh Get more information.
About the play
This abridged version was created for an intimate setting by NKP Theatre Company. In it, Virginia Woolf meets fellow author Vita Sackville-West in London in the 1920s. The two embark on a 20-year relationship that inspires one of Virginia’s most famous novels, Orlando. Abridged from the original play by Eileen Atkins, Vita and Virginia deftly brings to life the real letters and diaries of the two women, revealing deep friendship, wit and passion between the literary genius and the aristocratic yet middle-brow poet.
Want to stay in a Bloomsbury bedroom dedicated to Virginia Woolf that is also on the site of a home formerly occupied by Virginia and Leonard Woolf? Maybe you can.
The site of the building at 37 Mecklenburgh Square in which Virginia Woolf lived.
The Woolfs lived on the top floor at 37 Mecklenburgh Square, Bloomsbury, during the London blitz from 1939-1940, according to Jean Moorcroft Wilson’s Virginia Woolf Life and London: Bloomsbury and Beyond (1987/2011).
Now on that site is the William Goodenough House, which is part of Goodenough College. It has one student-style bedroom dedicated to Virginia, and each year that room is allocated to a literary student who, upon arrival, finds a copy of A Room of One’s Own on their bedside table.
Naida Babic was a student at Goodenough College in 2021. She recently met up with College Director Alice Walpole and friends to install a framed copy of one of her poems outside the room dedicated to Woolf, next to Woolf’s commemorative plaque.
She contacted Blogging Woolf to tell us about it and directed us to a story posted on the college website, where you can read the poem she wrote.
She explains: “I was living at Goodenough College while completing the last term of my MA Creative Writing programme at Birkbeck University, London. I wrote my poem “In the Hand of Virginia” during my poetry module.”
To commemorate the occasion, Maggie Humm, emeritus professor of cultural studies at the University of East London and the author or editor of 14 scholarly books and two novels, as well as Vice-Chair of the Virginia Woolf’s Society of Great Britain, gave a lecture on “The Photography of the Writer Virginia Woolf and Her Sister, the Artist Vanessa Bell.”
Maggie Humm talks about Woolf’s photography and how it relates to her writing at Dalloway Day 2018 at Gower Street Waterstones.
What: Working with Modern Letters: Ford Madox Ford, Katherine Mansfield, Virginia Woolf When: Monday, July 17, 2 – 4 p.m. London Time Who: The discussion will be led by: Professor Claire Davison, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3; and Professor Sara Haslam, Open University. It will be moderated by Professor Max Saunders, University of Birmingham How: Via Zoom. Jul 17, 2023 at 2 p.m. London Time Registration:https://bham-ac-uk.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMvf-6przItH9UWfNyu2pA-C_sng1zIsFf9
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the event.
