One hundred years ago today, on Dec. 28, 1925, Virginia Woolf headed to London to join her husband Leonard after spending Christmas at Charleston.
“Monk’s House Welcome Home” by Amanda White
The Woolfs were at Charleston to avoid the inconvenience of alterations being made at Monk’s House, and they celebrated the Christmas holiday with Vanessa Bell and her children.
While there, they “spent a fascinating evening reading VW’s diary recalling early days at 46 Gordon Square” (Diary 3, pg. 53).
The Woolfs: where they were and what they did on Dec. 28
Except for 1925 and 1926, the Woolfs spent their Christmas holiday at Monk’s House from 1925 through 1940. As noted in Virginia’s diaries, here is where they were and what they did on Dec. 28 of those years.
1925: 52 Tavistock Square, London
1926: The Woolfs return to 52 Tavistock Square, London after spending Christmas with Ka and Will Arnold Forster at Eagle’s Nest, Zennor in Cornwall (D3, 119).
1927: Monk’s House
1928: No mention
1929: Monk’s House, where the Keynes’ arrive in their Rolls Royce to pay a visit and stay overnight, wrecking Virginia’s “perfect fortnight of silence” (D3, 276).
1930: Monk’s House, where Virginia suffers from influenza and is in bed “with the usual temperature, & cant use my wits or, as is visible, form my letters” (D3, 340).
1931: Monk’s House, where Virginia notes that their “3 black swans came” to visit (D4, 57).
1932: Monk’s House, where Virginia is working on Flush (D4, 134).
1933: Monk’s House, where Virginia’s writing lodge is ready for her use (D4, 266).
1934: No mention
Virginia Woolf’s Writing Lodge at Monk’s House in Sussex
1935: Monk’s House, where Virginia begins a new book for her diary, after finishing the “last revision of the last pages of The Years” and wonders if she will “ever write a long book again–a long novel that has to be held in the brain, at full stretch–for close on 3 years?” (D4, 360).
1936: Monk’s House, where Virginia works on the proofs — “the galleys” — of The Years (D5, 44).
1937: Monk’s House, where Leonard took to his bed with a temperature before heading to London to see his doctor (D5, 122).
1938: Monk’s House, where she is writing Pointz Hall and keeps track of the reception of Three Guineas (D5, 193).
1939: Monk’s House, with snow and a hard frost on the 28th, allowing Virginia to skate on Dec. 31 (D5, 252).
1940: Monk’s House, where on the last Dec. 28 of her life, Virginia “rode across the downs to the Cliffs. A roll of barbed wire is hooped on the edge. I rubbed my mind brisk along the Newhaven road. Shabby old maids buying groceries, in that desert road with the villas; in the wet. And Newhaven gashed. But tire the body & the mind sleeps” (D5, 347).
More on the Woolfs and Christmas
Read on for more details about Virginia Woolf and Christmas and the Virginia Woolf word portrait by Akron, Ohio, artist John Sokol, which is pictured below.
