Virginia
The Diary of Virginia Woolf review – a book for the ages
“I meant to write about death, only life came breaking in as usual,” Virginia Woolf wrote on 17 February 1922, when she had just turned 40. Her diary is full of pain: deaths, losses, illness, grief, depression, anguish, fear. But on every page life breaks in, with astonishing energy, relish and glee. The diary is an unmatchable record of her times, a gallery of vividly observed individuals, an intimate and courageousself-examination, a revelation of a writer’s creative processes, a tender, watchful nature journal, and a meditation on life, love, marriage, friendship, solitude, society, time and mortality. It’s one of the greatest diaries ever written, and it’s excellent to see it back in print.
Woolf’s first surviving diary entry was made in 1897, when she was nearly 15; her last was on 24 March 1941, four days before her death. She kept these 42 years’ worth of writings in unlined notebooks with soft covers which she bound in coloured papers. She often referred back to them to remind herself of her past, and she drew on them when she started her memoir, Sketch of the Past, in 1939. When her London house was bombed in October 1940, she made sure to salvage them.
Before she killed herself, on 28 March 1941, she left a note for her husband Leonard asking him to destroy all her papers. Luckily for us, he didn’t. Instead he set about sorting and saving a vast mass of materials, including manuscripts of novels, essays and reviews, and these diaries, which went to the Berg Collection in the New York Public Library. In 1953, Leonard selected extracts, published as A Writer’s Diary, which gave the impression of nun-like dedication to the task of writing. It would take the publication of the complete diaries and letters, 20 or so years on, to shift that unsmiling image.
Woolf’s posthumous reputation as a gigantic figure in 20th-century literature, galvanised by the feminist movement of the 1960s and 70s, was secured by the scholarly editing and publishing of her novels, thanks to all those manuscripts Leonard preserved, and by decades of biographical and critical books on her. It also owes a great deal to the joint work of her nephew, the art historian Quentin Bell, who wrote her firstfull-length biography in 1972, and his wife, Anne Olivier Bell, who edited the diaries between 1977 and 1984, helped by Andrew McNeillie. That long labour is nicely evoked by her daughter Virginia Nicolson in her foreword to this Granta edition (all five volumes have good introductions from, among others, Olivia Laing and Margo Jefferson). Olivier transcribed more than 2,000 photocopied pages, tidied up Woolf’s quirks of spellings, datings and punctuation, introduced paragraphs into the rapid, free flow of her prose, and annotated, thoroughly, briskly and humorously, the torrent of names, references, in-jokes and allusions on every page. Granta keeps the original editorial prefaces and notes, and adds a hitherto not-included 1917 wartime Asheham Diary, but sadly doesn’t include Woolf’s early journals (1897 to 1909) which were published by another editor in 1990 as A Passionate Apprentice.
There is, notoriously, no shortage of mean remarks in Woolf’s diaries, as in her letters. She can be spiteful and snooty, and she often speaks the now-offensive language of her times. This has for years been catnip to Woolf critics who condemn her for her views. But, as Laing says here, she is “capable of shocking episodes of snobbery and cruelty while remaining far more progressive and politically engaged than many of her class”. Though Olivier removed a few unkind references to living people, she decided not to “beautify” Woolf by “cutting away ugly bits here and there”. The publisher at Granta has sensibly followed suit, but notes that “the language used and/or views expressed in the diary … and the original editorial material are those of the respective authors in their time and do not represent the publisher’s attitudes”.
No one could ever blame or shame Woolf as much as she does herself. She is intensely self-critical and longs to push outside herself, beyond egotism, to identify as “we”, not “I”. There’s a gripping struggle throughout between solipsism (“How I interest myself!”) and a longing for impersonality and communality. Her precise, passionate descriptions of the landscape around her, whether the Sussex Downs or London city streets, which in themselves make the diaries worth reading, are part of that longing to reach out from the self to what she calls “the singing of the real world”. And her avid fascination with other people makes for an almost uncanny empathy, as if she is turning herself into the person she is observing. The diary is a treasure house of characters, from the famous literary men and women she knew (Hardy, Wells, Yeats, Sackville-West, Mansfield, Eliot) to a thousand vivid portraits of more obscure lives.
How many different uses she puts her diary to! It is a record of her world, and if you want to know the details, written up at speed in the heat of the moment, of the general strike, or the abdication crisis, or the civilian experience of the second world war, this is the place to go. It is a writer’s exercise book, where she works at finding an “elastic” form which will make something of “this loose, drifting material of life”: “It strikes me that in this book I practise writing; do my scales.” It is an essential form of therapy, where dangerous feelings – anger over a row with Leonard about money, terror at the onset of depression, pain in illness, social embarrassment, apprehension of being laughed at when her books are coming out – can be laid to rest. This is where she “composes” herself: “To soothe these whirlpools, I write here.” It is a reader’s notebook, where she records her literary responses and judgments and often tells herself “what a vast fertility of pleasure books hold for me!” It is an intimate account of her own writing process, like the joyous moment in her bath when she suddenly invents Three Guineas – “Lord how exciting!” – or the evolution of To the Lighthouse, from the first thought: “to have father’s character done complete in it; & mothers; & St Ives; & childhood; & all the usual things I try to put in – life, death, etc”.
It is a memory book, which, very importantly for her, brings back her past and compulsively revisits key dates like her mother’s death when she was 13, or her marriage to Leonard, or the moves to different houses. It is a book about mortality, knowing that death is coming and making the most of what is now and here. “I am glad to be alive and sorry for the dead,” she writes after the suicide of a friend. She wrings all the juice from life: love, pleasure, affection and enjoyment run all through. She wants to live for the moment. “If one does not lie back & sum up & say to the moment, this very moment, stay you are so fair, what will be one’s gain, dying? No: stay, this moment. No one ever says that enough. Always hurry. I am now going in, to see L & say stay this moment.”
The West Virginia Mountaineers (4-2) will meet the No. 24 Arizona Wildcats in the third place game of the Battle 4 Atlantis midseason tournament for the sixth meeting between the two programs.
West Virginia vs. Arizona Series History
Arizona leads 2-3
Last Meeting: March 28, 2008 (NCAA Tournament) WVU 75-65
When: Friday, November 29
Location: Paradise Island, Bahamas, Imperial Arena (3,900)
Tip-off: 3:00 p.m. EST
Stream: ESPN2
Announcers: Beth Mowins and Debbie Antonelli
Radio: Tony Caridi (PBP), Brad Howe (analyst) Mountaineer Sports Network from Learfield IMG College(Radio affiliates)
WVU Game Notes
– West Virginia was scheduled to play in the 2020 Battle 4 Atlantis. The tournament was moved to Sioux Falls, S.D., due to COVID, and the Mountaineers won the renamed Bad Boy Mowers Crossover Classic.
– WVU is 45-16 in in-season tournaments since 2007.
– With a win over No. 3 Gonzaga, WVU defeated a Top 5 AP team for the second consecutive season. Last season, the Mountaineers downed No. 3 Kansas in Morgantown, 91-85.
– Prior to the overtime win over No. 3 Gonzaga, WVU had lost six straight overtime games.
– This is WVU’s fourth trip outside the United States and Puerto Rico to play a regular season game. WVU played in Cancun in 2013 and 2019 and opened the season in Germany in the 2017 Armed Forces Classic.
– West Virginia is the only team in the country that has two players on the same team who averaged more than 20 points per game from last season — Tucker DeVries (21.6 ppg) and Jayden Stone (20.8 ppg)
– West Virginia is 201-55 against nonconference teams in regular season games in the last 21 seasons.
– The Mountaineers have posted a winning nonconference record in 31 of the last 32 seasons.
– WVU is 265-99 in its last 362 games against unranked teams, including winners of 148 of its last 180 at the WVU Coliseum.
– This is the 116th season and 122nd year overall for WVU basketball, which began in 1903.
– Darian DeVries, who led Drake to six consecutive 20-win seasons and has a career .731 winning percentage as a head coach, was named the 23rd head men’s basketball coach at West Virginia University on March 24, 2024.
– DeVries has a record of 154-57 (.731) in seven seasons as a head coach, including a 59-16 (.787) mark in the last two-plus seasons.
– This past August, the men’s basketball team went to Italy for a 10-day tour and won all three of its games against international competition.
– West Virginia returns just 2.8 percent of its scoring from last season’s team (Ofri Naveh).
– The Mountaineers are led by a pair of transfers in Tucker DeVries (Drake) and Javon Small (Oklahoma State). Last season, DeVries was named an Associated Press All-American Honorable Mention selection, while Small earned All-Big 12 Honorable Mention honors.
– In addition, Eduardo Andre (Fresno State), Joseph Yesufu (Washington State), Sencire Harris (Illinois), Amani Hansberry (Illinois) and Jayden Stone (Detroit Mercy) will all see considerable action this season.
– Tucker DeVries was named to the 20-member Julius Erving Preseason Watch List, giving annually to the nation’s top small forward.
– Tucker DeVries was named to the preseason Naismith Trophy Men’s College Player of the Year Watch List.
– Tucker DeVries was named to the John R. Wooden Award Top 50 Preseason Watch List.
West Virginia got off to a hot start at the Bad Boy Mowers Battle 4 Atlantis by knocking off undefeated Gonzaga 86-78 in overtime in their first-round matchup. The Mountaineers have received strong performances to begin the season from two upperclassman transfers: Javon Small and Tucker DeVries.
With each player delivering standout performances, it’s time to start considering them seriously as draft prospects.
Let’s take a closer look at their outings in this big win and dive into their seasons as a whole up to this point.
Tucker DeVries finished this game with a stuffed stat line of 16 points, six rebounds, four assists, two steals and four blocks. This level of versatility clearly illustrates the type of player he is, as he looked solid in nearly every aspect of the game. He has good positional size at 6-foot-7 and plays with a very high IQ on both ends of the floor. His defensive impact was especially noticeable, as he consistently made impactful plays, including a steal that led to free throws to tie the game at the end of regulation. DeVries finished the second half on a 5-0 run, which gave West Virginia momentum to capture the game in overtime.
DeVries has had a solid all-around season leading up to this performance, averaging 13.5 points, 4.8 rebounds, two assists, 2.5 steals and 1.3 blocks, with shooting splits of 36.6%/40.7%/81.3%. If he were to be drafted following this season, it would likely be in the second round, but his versatile play style is very promising.
Javon Small led the Mountaineers in scoring during this upset victory, contributing 31 points on impressive shooting splits of 50%/40%/81.8%. In addition to his scoring, he also grabbed seven rebounds, dished out two assists and added one steal and one block. Small is a quick and slippery guard who stayed in attack mode throughout the game, translating well into fast-break opportunities. Rarely staying in one spot on offense, Small kept the floor spaced and forced his defender to fight through traffic to keep up with him. His offensive approach was patient as he waited for his defender to get off balance before attacking.
Before this game, Small had averaged 15.5 points, 3.3 rebounds, four assists and three steals. He leads the Mountaineers in points, assists, and steals, while providing a noticeable spark on a nightly basis. Small is now at his third school in four years, with similar statistics in each of his previous two seasons. As an older guard, it is not guaranteed that he will be drafted, but if this level of productivity continues throughout the season, he may receive an opportunity to prove himself at the next level.
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The rivalry matchup between Virginia Tech and Virginia is nearly 48 hours away and it is a big matchup for both teams. The Hokies and the Cavaliers are both 5-6 and needing a win to make a bowl game. The loser will be getting a headstart on 2025 instead of playing in the postseason.
At the start of the year, Virginia Tech was being talked about as one of the biggest surprise teams not just in the ACC, but in the country. This team’s biggest goals have gone away, but they still have an opportunity to reach a bowl game for the second straight season. That should still be a big deal to the program, but on the other side, the Cavaliers are trying to make a bowl game for the first time under Tony Elliott. They are going to be fired up about playing in this game and having a chance to make a bowl game, so Virginia Tech can’t take it for granted, no matter their past success vs Virginia.
So what are the keys to a win for Virginia Tech on Saturday?
Before you could even blink on Saturday night, Virginia Tech was trailing Duke 14-0 thanks to two long touchdown plays and the Blue Devils have not been a very explosive offense this season. Virginia has found a way to put points on teams like Clemson and Louisville this season and has improved since last year. The Hokies’ pass rush was non-existent on Saturday vs Duke, finishing with no sacks and being unable to disrupt Duke quarterback Maalik Murphy. They will have to be able to play better on Saturday if they want to avoid the upset.
It is still up in the air who is going to play quarterback for the Hokies on Saturday night, but whoever it is would benefit from a big game from one of the nation’s best running backs. Tuten had 84 yards on 19 carries last week, but Virginia Tech might need more than that on Saturday when the face the Cavaliers.
Our own RJ Schafer wrote this about the quarterbavck situation heading into Saturday’s game:
“Brent Pry listed both Kyron Drones and Collin Schlee as questionable ahead of the historic matchup. He added that both will practice, although very limited, and they could “just be watching” from the sidelines.
Coach Pry also added that Virginia Tech is preparing four quarterbacks to be ready to play this weekend, including Davi Belfort, a freshman quarterback from Brazil, a country which could begin to be the future of American college football.
Whoever plays this weekend is going to have to have to manage the game and not turn the ball over. I think the offense is going rely on the run game heavily this weekend due to that.
Additional Links:
Virginia Tech Football Releases Depth Chart Ahead of Matchup Against Virginia
Virginia Tech Football: PFF Grades and Snap Counts For Every Player in Saturday’s Loss to Duke
Virginia Tech Football: Updated Bowl Projections For The Hokies Heading Into Final Game
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