Winner of the prestigious Prix Goncourt award for biography, this remarkable portrait sheds new light on Virginia Woolf's relationships with her family and friends and how they shaped her work. Virginia Woolf: A Portrait blends recently unearthed documents, key primary sources, and personal interviews with Woolf's relatives and other acquaintances to render in unmatched detail the author's complicated relationship with her husband, Leonard; her father, Leslie Stephen; and her half-sister, Vanessa Bell. Forrester connects these figures to Woolf's mental breakdown while introducing the concept of "Virginia seule," or Virginia alone: an uncommon paragon of female strength and conviction. Forrester's biography inhabits her characters and vivifies their perspective, weaving a colorful, intense drama that forces readers to rethink their understanding of Woolf, her writing, and her world.

Winner of the prestigious Prix Goncourt award for biography, this remarkable portrait sheds new light on Virginia Woolf's relationships with her family and friends and how they shaped her work. Virginia Woolf: A Portrait blends recently unearthed documents, key primary sources, and personal interviews with Woolf's relatives and other acquaintances to render in unmatched detail the author's complicated relationship with her husband, Leonard; her father, Leslie Stephen; and her half-sister, Vanessa Bell. Forrester connects these figures to Woolf's mental breakdown while introducing the concept of "Virginia seule," or Virginia alone: an uncommon paragon of female strength and conviction. Forrester's biography inhabits her characters and vivifies their perspective, weaving a colorful, intense drama that forces readers to rethink their understanding of Woolf, her writing, and her world.

Dans un recit bouleversant, Viviane Forrester nous presente une Virginia Woolf chatoyante, desopilante et meurtrie, differente certainement de la legende batie par son mari Leonard... Une femme qui eut a subir son genie, a s'efforcer de le faire accepter par les siens. Une femme qui aura pu dire: Je sens dans mes doigts le poids de chaque mot, avant de repondre a l'etreinte promise par la mort en allant se noyer, les poches pleines de pierres, dans la riviere Ouse. Un suicide dont on decouvrira des causes, jusqu'ici enfouies.Nouvelle edition mise a jour.Cette magnifique biographie pulverise la legende de Virginia et Leonard - la folie maniaco-depressive de l'une; la pieuse devotion de l'autre - en melant a la precision de l'enquete litteraire la force vive d'une ecriture romanesque. Nils C. Ahl, Le Monde des livres. Goncourt de la biographie 2009.