REMEMBERING VIRGINIA WOOLF

Yesterday 28th, 70 years back, Virginia Woolf filled her pockets with stones and drowned herself in the Ouse River, near her home in Sussex. She left the following note to her husband Leonard , which is more like a love letter than a suicide note.

Dearest,

I feel certain I am going mad again. I feel we can't go through another one of those terrible times. And I shan't recover this time. I begin to hear voices and I can't concentrate. So I am doing what seems the best thing to do. You have given me the greatest possible happiness. You have been in every way all that anyone could be. I don't think two people could have been happier till this terrible disease came. I can't fight any longer. I know that I am spoiling your life, that without me you could work. And you will I know. You see I can't even write this properly. I can't read. What I want to say is I owe all the happiness of my life to you. You have been entirely patient with me and incredibly good. I want to say that – everybody knows it. If anybody could have saved me it would have been you. Everything has gone from me but the certainty of your goodness. I can't go on spoiling your life any longer.

I don't think two people could have been happier than we have been.

V.

Her works have not been considered as cannonical as other modernist writers such as Joyce or TS Eliot.

However, it is interensting to know that the Cambridge University Press has re-examined her work in depth. And the new editions to come will include more annotations that would provide a new view on her work.

This is great, the recorded voice of Virginia Woolf. It's enchanting.