Woolf English
Virginia Woolf
1882～1941. A British female writer. She is one of the representative writers of ‘modernism.’ She wrote Mrs. Dalloway(1925）, To the Lighthouse(1927）, The Waves(1931） and other novels. During the Second World War, she committed herself. Like Vernon Lee, she was also a lesbian.
A Room of One's Own (1929） is one of the classic feminist books in which Woolf claimed the necessity of women’s economic independence. In the same book, Woolf referred to Vernon Lee’s books on art as an example of a woman who can write an intellectual book. Among Lee’s works, Woolf loved best The Prince of the Hundred Soups.
Both Lee and Woolf were lesbian writers but Woolf disliked Lee and she called her “garrulous baby.” On Lee’s The Sentimental Traveler, Woolf wrote: "I am sobbing with misery over Vernon Lee, who turns good writing to vapour with her fluency and insipidityーthe plausible woman!" In addition, she wrote in a letter: "But looseness quickly becomes slovenly. A little effort is needed to face a character or an incident which needs to be recorded. Nor can one let the pen write without guidance; for fear of becoming slack and untidy like Vernon Lee. Her ligaments are too loose for my taste."
Woolf wrote on Vernon Lee in Essays: "But if Vernon Lee lacks the temper of the great aesthetic critic, she has many of the gifts of a first-rate disciple. She has read Plato and Ruskin and Pater with enthusiasm because she cares passionately for the subjects they deal with. Moreover, although we may doubt her conclusions or admit that thy bewilder us, her exposition is full of ingenuity, and has often the suggestive power of brilliant talk."
Some critics argue that Woolf’s novel Orlando (1929) was written under some influence of Vernon Lee’s ‘Oke of Okehurst.’
Woolf also had a complaint on Lee's attitude towards the First World War. Ethel Smyth, a friend of Lee, asked Woolf "Why do you think Vernon Lees (sic) views on war detestable?", Woolf answered: "I hate her utter lack of patriotism...either innate or acquired." （Colby, 293.）
