A review by eheslosz
A Writer's Diary: Being Extracts from the Diary of Virginia Woolf, by Virginia Woolf
5.0
Earlier this year I read the 'Selected Diaries' of Virginia Woolf, which were considerably more comprehensive but still selected and abridged. I am mildly infuriated by the fact that I have now read two different (occasionally overlapping) edited/abridged/selected versions of Virginia Woolf's diary, without knowing where the edits and omissions occur in either of them! The only passages I can be sure of are those quoted by Hermione Lee in her excellent biography (just finished). Lee even sticks to the original manuscripts' dodgy spelling and punctuation when Woolf is hectically writing her diary. One day I will read the full unedited five volumes of the diary, if I can get my hands on them. Because of these limitations I can't speak for the implications of Leonard Woolf's editing in 'A Writer's Diary'.
But enough of this mediation on editions! The book itself! Honestly, if you are not an academic or a strange VW obsessive like me, this is the book I would recommend if you want to read Virginia Woolf's diaries. Also, it is the book I would recommend – as well as '84, Charing Cross road' – if you are a bookworm and a nerd for writers talking about other books. There is something about Woolf using her diary as a procrastinatory writing space for complaining about her "proper" writing that makes it delicious to read. For example, on Saturday April 12th 1919, she writes, 'These ten minutes are stolen from 'Moll Flanders', which I failed to finish yesterday in accordance with my time sheet'. This quote amalgamates the reading and the procrastination elements quite nicely. For context, she was reading Defoe to write an article about him. Anyway all I have left to say is that if you can't enjoy Woolf's novels because they are too dense, too abstract, too "modernist", too difficult (I love them but fair enough), this is very different, and very readable. Not as much gossip as in the 'Selected Diaries', but still a decent amount, and more of the literary kind.
But enough of this mediation on editions! The book itself! Honestly, if you are not an academic or a strange VW obsessive like me, this is the book I would recommend if you want to read Virginia Woolf's diaries. Also, it is the book I would recommend – as well as '84, Charing Cross road' – if you are a bookworm and a nerd for writers talking about other books. There is something about Woolf using her diary as a procrastinatory writing space for complaining about her "proper" writing that makes it delicious to read. For example, on Saturday April 12th 1919, she writes, 'These ten minutes are stolen from 'Moll Flanders', which I failed to finish yesterday in accordance with my time sheet'. This quote amalgamates the reading and the procrastination elements quite nicely. For context, she was reading Defoe to write an article about him. Anyway all I have left to say is that if you can't enjoy Woolf's novels because they are too dense, too abstract, too "modernist", too difficult (I love them but fair enough), this is very different, and very readable. Not as much gossip as in the 'Selected Diaries', but still a decent amount, and more of the literary kind.