Woolf Virginia

1919 · réf. 166707 — Hogarth House Richmond: 27 November 1919. The great battle is between those who think it unreal & those who think it real A long and contemplative letter written in a close hand to her brother-in-law Clive Bell in which Woolf reflects on the early reception of her second novel Night and Day. Bell offered Woolf some of her earliest encouragement as a novelist; she praised him in one letter as "the first person who ever thought I'd write well" 24 July 1917; Woolf p. 167. His letter to Woolf which "arrived on a blue & brilliant morning" was full of praise for Night and Day. Woolf responds appreciatively: "I hope you laid on your colours a little thick. It sounds too good to be true; yet I know you wouldn't deceive your sister in law." The novel published on 20 October had already received a smattering of reviews. "They've praised me highly for the most part & wrongly too; in fact as criticism they're worthless so far." She informs Bell of the latest news and gossip about members of her literary circle name-checking Ottoline Morrell "she has ransacked Ireland & finds nothing big enough to stick in the teeth of her comb" Thomas Hardy "he has just produced his 21st imitation of Tess of the D'Urbervilles" and fondly recalling a recent weekend with Lytton Strachey and Dora Carrington at Tidmarsh. She also outlines some of the reviews she received from friends: "I couldn't grasp what Katherine Mansfield meant but thought she disliked the book & wouldn't say so & so masked her points. John Middleton Murry however tells me that she admires it but thinks my 'aloofness' morally wrong." Woolf was right to be wary of her rival's faint praise: even before reading the novel Mansfield carped to Lady Ottoline that "I expect it will be acclaimed as a masterpiece & she will be drawn round Gordon Square in a chariot designed by Roger Fry after a supper given by Clive" quoted in Hussey p. 166. The divergent opinions of friends and critics proved exasperating. "Every day I get letters & they all pick out different points & no two people seem to agree. some say the first chapters are the best & others say the last & some say its in the tradition & others say its not but the great battle so Murry tells me is between those who think it unreal & those who think it real. What do they mean". In these lines the form of her experimental stream-of-consciousness novel Jacob's Room is tantalisingly evident: she would begin writing just two months later in January 1920. Woolf's reflections on Night and Day take up both sides of her letter and she fills out the last remaining space with details of everyday life in Richmond. "I'm in the midst of domestic crisis - both servants leaving; Nessa however has surmounted hers & I see as at the and of a telescope a glimpse of an enchanted world where I turn a handle & hot mutton chops are shot out on a plate - human agency entirely removed." She closes the letter having run out of paper "Unfortunately what with the sympathy of my correspondent & the gigantic importance of my theme there's no paper left" and ends where she began: "Did I say that a reviewer has just written to express gratitude & admiration. What for Night & Day of course. Yours V.W." The letter remained in the Bell family until 1980. It is published on pages 403-4 of The Letters of Virginia Woolf 1912-1922 1976 edited by Nigel Nicolson and Joanna Trautmann. Single sheet 255 x 202 mm handwritten across both sides. Lightly creased from folding a couple of tiny nicks and splits excellent condition. Mark Hussey Clive Bell and the Making of Modernism: A Biography 2021; Virginia Woolf The Letters 1912-1922 1976. unknown