THE WISE VIRGINS A STORY OF WORDS, OPINIONS AND A FEW EMOTIONS

WOOLF, Leonard

Published by The Hogarth Press, London, 1979

About this Item

Red cloth, title stamped in gilt. Introduction by Ian Parsons, Woolf's colleague when the Hogarth Press joined Chatto & Windus, and the husband of the woman, Margaret Tulip (Trekkie) Ritchie Parsons, with whom he fell in love after the death of his wife Virginia in March, 1941. Neat bookseller's label affixed to the pastedown, some minor offsetting to endpapers, top edge a bit dusty, else near fine in a very good dust jacket, lightly toned at edges, and designed by Trekkie Ritchie (Parsons). First new edition of The Wise Virgins,first published during the outbreak of World War I in 1914. This was Leonard Woolf's second novel, published two years after the author's marriage to Virginia Stephen, and begun during their honeymoon. The autobiographical elements of the book are well documented in Quentin Bell's Virginia Woolf A Biography, in which Bell quotes from Virginia Woolf's Diary, 31 January 1915, "it's a remarkable book: very bad in parts; first rate in others. A writer's book, I think, because only a writer perhaps can see why the good parts are so very good and why the very bad parts aren't very bad ." Its publication caused acute distress to Woolf's family. Leonard's beloved sister, Bella, urged him not to publish the novel, while his mother, after reading it in manuscript and seeing the unflattering portraits of herself there was mortified and warned Leonard that if it was published there would be a very serious rift in their relationship. She needn't have worried, the war had virtually diverted everyone's attention away from this publication. .

Seller Inventory # 360

Bibliographic Details

• Title: THE WISE VIRGINS A STORY OF WORDS, OPINIONS AND A FEW EMOTIONS
• Publisher: The Hogarth Press, London
• Publication Date: 1979
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Near fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
• Seller catalogs:
  • Bloomsbury
  • Hogarth Press
  • Twentieth Century Fiction