Status
Available
Publication
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (2015), Hardcover, 288 pages
Description
"On April 18th, 1941, twenty-two days after Virginia Woolf went for a walk near her weekend house and never returned, her body was reclaimed from the River Ouse. For more than half a century, Woolf's suicide has been attributed to alleged depression; bipolar disorder; her impaired mental state after two of her London apartments had been bombed during the Second World War's brutal Blitz. With Adeline--a stunning and provocative reimagining of the events that brought Virginia Woolf to the riverbank--Norah Vincent posits connections not made before, offering us a de?nouement worthy of its protagonist. An ambitious work in the tradition of Woolf herself, Adeline audaciously explores the interior consciousness of the most interior of authors, from the summer she began working on To The Lighthouse through the winter she finished Between the Acts. Intellectually and emotionally disarming, Adeline--a vibrant portrait of the author and her social circle, the infamous Bloomsbury Group, and a window into the darkness that both inspired and doomed them all--is a masterpiece in its own right by one of our most brilliant and daring writers. "--… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member Beamis12
If someone had told me when I first started reading this novel that I would end of giving it five stars, I would have thought they were crazy. I had a hard time in the beginning but then I realized that this was a book that once you got into the rhythm of the prose you just needed to keep reading,
Adeline was her real first name and in this book Adeline is her alter ego. When Virginia is having one of her so called spells, it is Adenine to whom she talks. Such an amazing look at the inner workings of Virginia's mind, some of her past that she can't let go of, her thought process as she wrote her novels, her fears and her marriage.
It includes conversations with Yeats, Thomas Elliott and his wife, Vivian, and others that were important to her social circle. Hers was a mind that was not only brilliant but always pondering, musing about many different things. Leonard always worried about her mental state, trying to keep her steady. We know how the story ends and I finished this book feeling so sympathetic to what she had fought through all her life. It also made me want to read many of her other novels, those that were mentioned in this book particularly.
Vincent gives the reader an inside look at Virginia Woolf, her daily struggles, insecurities and triumphs. The prose is wonderful and though the end of her life is a sad one, she accomplished so much and lived with so much, until she couldn't. This book helps us see why.
A must read for all fans of this amazing author.
ARC from publisher.
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just this book, it wanted all my attention sort of like Virginia herself wanted or needed.. I unfortunately never read just one book at a time but I really wanted to read this book, so I started over and just read it through. It was brilliant.Adeline was her real first name and in this book Adeline is her alter ego. When Virginia is having one of her so called spells, it is Adenine to whom she talks. Such an amazing look at the inner workings of Virginia's mind, some of her past that she can't let go of, her thought process as she wrote her novels, her fears and her marriage.
It includes conversations with Yeats, Thomas Elliott and his wife, Vivian, and others that were important to her social circle. Hers was a mind that was not only brilliant but always pondering, musing about many different things. Leonard always worried about her mental state, trying to keep her steady. We know how the story ends and I finished this book feeling so sympathetic to what she had fought through all her life. It also made me want to read many of her other novels, those that were mentioned in this book particularly.
Vincent gives the reader an inside look at Virginia Woolf, her daily struggles, insecurities and triumphs. The prose is wonderful and though the end of her life is a sad one, she accomplished so much and lived with so much, until she couldn't. This book helps us see why.
A must read for all fans of this amazing author.
ARC from publisher.
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LibraryThing member lauriebrown54
Adeline was Virginia Stephen’s given first name, but as it was her dead aunt’s name, it hurt her mother too much to use it. So she was Virginia from the start. In this novelized biography of the last fifteen years of Woolf’s life, Adeline exists inside Virginia her whole life as a separate
Written mainly from Virginia’s point of view in the present tense, Vincent has done a good job of allowing the reader a look at how Virginia might have felt at times when she held conversations with her younger self and with friends who had died. The times when mania was setting in are particularly suffocating and uncomfortable. Her novels tended to be based on experiences she or her friends & family had, and writing them was rather painful. In a lot of ways, Virginia Woolf never grew up and she needed people- mostly her husband, Leonard Woolf, and her sister Vanessa (Nessa) Bell – to take care of her even during her good times. Very fragile emotionally, she was treated like a precious egg that could break easily. From this book I get the feeling she never knew a moment’s peace from her demons.
The style of writing is rather wordy and full of similes; very unlike most prose of today. It put me in mind of Woolf’s own writing and I’m sure this was deliberate on the part of the author since we spend most of the novel inside Woolf’s head. While it made for rough going at times, I feel that ultimately it helped sustain the feeling of intimacy with Woolf’s thought. I have to say that while I’ve enjoyed other books about Woolf and the Bloomsbury group more than this one, I did enjoy this book and feel it’s a worthy addition to the growing shelf of books about that group. It also has given me an urge to know more about W.B. Yeats, as he comes off in this book as a jovial mystic.
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personality to absorb the abuse she endured from her step-brother and to deal with emotionally upsetting events. Virginia talked to Adeline as if she existed outside of her body. Written mainly from Virginia’s point of view in the present tense, Vincent has done a good job of allowing the reader a look at how Virginia might have felt at times when she held conversations with her younger self and with friends who had died. The times when mania was setting in are particularly suffocating and uncomfortable. Her novels tended to be based on experiences she or her friends & family had, and writing them was rather painful. In a lot of ways, Virginia Woolf never grew up and she needed people- mostly her husband, Leonard Woolf, and her sister Vanessa (Nessa) Bell – to take care of her even during her good times. Very fragile emotionally, she was treated like a precious egg that could break easily. From this book I get the feeling she never knew a moment’s peace from her demons.
The style of writing is rather wordy and full of similes; very unlike most prose of today. It put me in mind of Woolf’s own writing and I’m sure this was deliberate on the part of the author since we spend most of the novel inside Woolf’s head. While it made for rough going at times, I feel that ultimately it helped sustain the feeling of intimacy with Woolf’s thought. I have to say that while I’ve enjoyed other books about Woolf and the Bloomsbury group more than this one, I did enjoy this book and feel it’s a worthy addition to the growing shelf of books about that group. It also has given me an urge to know more about W.B. Yeats, as he comes off in this book as a jovial mystic.
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LibraryThing member adpaton
Adeline, by Norah Vincent, Virago, 2015
You don’t have to like Virginia Woolf or the Bloomsbury Group to be enthralled by this fictional biography delivered in an elegant pastiche of Woolf’s own style. The book follows her from 1925 to her 1941 suicide as she drifts through books and lovers,
You don’t have to like Virginia Woolf or the Bloomsbury Group to be enthralled by this fictional biography delivered in an elegant pastiche of Woolf’s own style. The book follows her from 1925 to her 1941 suicide as she drifts through books and lovers,
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sheltered by a languid cloud of cigarette smoke. Show Less
LibraryThing member Rdra1962
I think this would be an excellent read for those familiar with Virginia Woolf and her body of work. Having only read Mrs. Dalloway, and not being very familiar with Woolf or the Bloomsbury Group, I felt myself at a disadvantage. Many of the "characters" in this novel were familiar names; T.S
Reading this novel I constantly wanted to run to the library to check out other works and research the lives of people mentioned. That was annoying. I felt like I was sitting at a table with a group of people who all knew one another and were deep in conversation about past adventures I had not been a part of. That is not a bad thing, it is just a warning!
The novel seems to be trying to give insight into Woolf's writings, relationships and eventual suicide. Her mental problems are at the forefront. However until the final quarter of the novel when we hear her trying to justify her choices, there is not a real sense of how despairingly she feels. Instead we are told she isn't eating, won't leave her room, and that her husband is fearful for her mental state and safety. We see her having long discussions with her alter-ego/self as a mechanism to learn more about her life, but the conversations do not really show depression deep enough to lead to suicide. The author attempts to let us feel and understand what led Woolf to take her own life, but for me it was only Virginia's own words as she argued with friends, her frustrated sister and her friend/doctor Octavia that allowed me any understanding of how Woolf truly felt and why she chose to end her life.
I did enjoy the snippets of conversation between Virginia and her devout husband Leonard as well as those with the poet W.B Yeats. It was also astonishing how cruel the Bloomsbury Group of "friends" could be to one another - was it a by-product of being so bright or just too much time spent intellectualizing everything? I admired how even in the face of such biting remarks they could still admire the intelligence behind the insults. In such a dour novel these brief moment of humor were a relief.
I strongly suggest reading some Woolf and at least doing some research on the Bloomsbury Group before reading this novel. I think it will take this reading experience to a much more satisfying and enriching level.
All that being said I did find many of the passages where Virginia is debating issues with her husband, her friends or her doctor to be brilliant. Following Woolf's train of thought was quite exhilarating and I could tell that an enormous amount of research had been undertaken by the author. I am definitely inspired to read more Woolf.
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Elliot, Vita Sackville-West, Yeats, Freud and many are names I feel I should know but do not. Their works are referenced; rarely by name and not being familiar with the novels/poems/essays made me feel I was missing connections and themes the author was trying to establish. Incidents in Virginia's life were often mentioned vaguely and in passing, as if I should know what she was talking about - but I didn't. Some facts were fleshed out as the novel progressed, some were not.Reading this novel I constantly wanted to run to the library to check out other works and research the lives of people mentioned. That was annoying. I felt like I was sitting at a table with a group of people who all knew one another and were deep in conversation about past adventures I had not been a part of. That is not a bad thing, it is just a warning!
The novel seems to be trying to give insight into Woolf's writings, relationships and eventual suicide. Her mental problems are at the forefront. However until the final quarter of the novel when we hear her trying to justify her choices, there is not a real sense of how despairingly she feels. Instead we are told she isn't eating, won't leave her room, and that her husband is fearful for her mental state and safety. We see her having long discussions with her alter-ego/self as a mechanism to learn more about her life, but the conversations do not really show depression deep enough to lead to suicide. The author attempts to let us feel and understand what led Woolf to take her own life, but for me it was only Virginia's own words as she argued with friends, her frustrated sister and her friend/doctor Octavia that allowed me any understanding of how Woolf truly felt and why she chose to end her life.
I did enjoy the snippets of conversation between Virginia and her devout husband Leonard as well as those with the poet W.B Yeats. It was also astonishing how cruel the Bloomsbury Group of "friends" could be to one another - was it a by-product of being so bright or just too much time spent intellectualizing everything? I admired how even in the face of such biting remarks they could still admire the intelligence behind the insults. In such a dour novel these brief moment of humor were a relief.
I strongly suggest reading some Woolf and at least doing some research on the Bloomsbury Group before reading this novel. I think it will take this reading experience to a much more satisfying and enriching level.
All that being said I did find many of the passages where Virginia is debating issues with her husband, her friends or her doctor to be brilliant. Following Woolf's train of thought was quite exhilarating and I could tell that an enormous amount of research had been undertaken by the author. I am definitely inspired to read more Woolf.
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LibraryThing member starbox
Utterly superb recreation of moments in the life of Virginia Woolf; Written in an enfolding stream-of-consciousness style, reminiscent of Woolf's own work, it explores her relationships with husband Leonard, her sister and various literary friends.The struggle to express the human experience in
Unputdownable, an astonishing achievement.
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words; and the ongoing mental and physical collapses that beset her life.Unputdownable, an astonishing achievement.
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Language
Original publication date
2015
Physical description
288 p.; 5.5 inches
ISBN
0544470206 / 9780544470200
Local notes
fiction