Inspiring feminism: On her 139th birth anniversary, here's all you need to know about Virginia Woolf

Today marks the 139th birth anniversary of English author Virginia Woolf, a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device.
Virginia Woolf is an English writer, who has a unique style of writing and is a pioneer of literary modernism, using her stream of thought as a narrative device. She is also known for having inspired feminism. (Photo | Wikimedia Commons)
Virginia Woolf is an English writer, who has a unique style of writing and is a pioneer of literary modernism, using her stream of thought as a narrative device. She is also known for having inspired feminism. (Photo | Wikimedia Commons)
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Growing up: Virginia was born to Laura and Leslie Stephen. She was homeschooled and was influenced and assisted by her father's eminence in literary societies. Though she did not attend college, she met a lot of scholars through her brothers who went to the University of Cambridge. She published her first novel in 1915 called 'The Voyage Out. IN PIC: Virginia (left) playing cricket with her sister Vanessa Bells. (Photo | Wikimedia Commons)
Growing up: Virginia was born to Laura and Leslie Stephen. She was homeschooled and was influenced and assisted by her father's eminence in literary societies. Though she did not attend college, she met a lot of scholars through her brothers who went to the University of Cambridge. She published her first novel in 1915 called 'The Voyage Out. IN PIC: Virginia (left) playing cricket with her sister Vanessa Bells. (Photo | Wikimedia Commons)
Writing: Woolf’s lyrical writing thrived on the introspection of her characters, revealing the complex emotions underlying seemingly mundane events — how the ringing of the Big Ben evokes the passage of time in ‘Mrs. Dalloway’ (1925) or a family’s visit to the coast hides deep-seated tensions in ‘To the Lighthouse’ (1927). (Photo | Wikimedia Commons)
Writing: Woolf’s lyrical writing thrived on the introspection of her characters, revealing the complex emotions underlying seemingly mundane events — how the ringing of the Big Ben evokes the passage of time in ‘Mrs. Dalloway’ (1925) or a family’s visit to the coast hides deep-seated tensions in ‘To the Lighthouse’ (1927). (Photo | Wikimedia Commons)
Non-fiction: Works like ‘A Room of One’s Own’ (1929) and ‘Three Guineas’ (1938) showcase Woolf’s unflinching feminist perspective by documenting the gendered intellectual stratification and resulting male-dominated power dynamics of the period. IN PIC: Virginia with husband Leonard Woolf. (Photo | Wikimedia Commons)
Non-fiction: Works like ‘A Room of One’s Own’ (1929) and ‘Three Guineas’ (1938) showcase Woolf’s unflinching feminist perspective by documenting the gendered intellectual stratification and resulting male-dominated power dynamics of the period. IN PIC: Virginia with husband Leonard Woolf. (Photo | Wikimedia Commons)
Bloomsbury Group: Woolf along with Lytton Strachey, Clive Bell, Rupert Brooke, Saxon Sydney-Turner, Duncan Grant, Leonard Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, David Garnett, and Roger Fry, formed a group of the intellectual circle of writers known as the Bloomsbury Group. The group was closely associated with the University of Cambridge, and they lived and studied together.  IN PIC: Virginia with Lytton Strachey. (Photo | Wikimedia Commons)
Bloomsbury Group: Woolf along with Lytton Strachey, Clive Bell, Rupert Brooke, Saxon Sydney-Turner, Duncan Grant, Leonard Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, David Garnett, and Roger Fry, formed a group of the intellectual circle of writers known as the Bloomsbury Group. The group was closely associated with the University of Cambridge, and they lived and studied together. IN PIC: Virginia with Lytton Strachey. (Photo | Wikimedia Commons)
Bouts of mental illness: The author's mental illness has been studied later by many scholars in detail. Apparently, Virginia's was a mental illness where her literary creativity was born from her depression. (Photo | Wikimedia Commons)
Bouts of mental illness: The author's mental illness has been studied later by many scholars in detail. Apparently, Virginia's was a mental illness where her literary creativity was born from her depression. (Photo | Wikimedia Commons)
Suicide: At the beginning of World War II, Virginia slipped into depression again after writing her last novel 'Between the Acts'. Her husband was enlisted in the Home Guard in London which added to her unhappiness. She was said to be obsessed with death at the time, and she left a letter to her husband and drowned herself in the River Ouse. (Photo | Wikimedia Commons)
Suicide: At the beginning of World War II, Virginia slipped into depression again after writing her last novel 'Between the Acts'. Her husband was enlisted in the Home Guard in London which added to her unhappiness. She was said to be obsessed with death at the time, and she left a letter to her husband and drowned herself in the River Ouse. (Photo | Wikimedia Commons)

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