Monday, April 1, 2013

Cambridge in Virginia's writing


Cambridge University played a large role in Virginia Woolf's life. Her brothers Thoby and Adrian both attended the university and often brought their friends home to visit.   Virginia, her sister Vanessa, and these Cambridge companions formed what came to be known as the Bloomsbury Group.  The group was an influential force in the writing and art worlds and strongly embodied the spirit of Modernism.
Virginia, sometimes accompanied by her close friend Vita Sackville-West, visited Cambridge many times throughout her life mostly to present her essays.  She also had relatives and close friends that were members of the Cambridge Apostles, an elite society comprising of the top academics at Cambridge.

Some places where Cambridge appears in Virginia's writing...

A Room of One's Own: this work contains the most references to the university as it is an extension of an essay she presented there. She refers to Cambrdige as Oxbridge (a combination of Oxford and Cambridge) and Newnham College as Fernham, but her descriptions make it clear what she is actually refering to.

Moments of Being:
pg. 108 "...how he (Leslie Stephen) went to Eton and was unhappy; went to Cambridge and was in his element
....or mould, of so many Cambridge intellectuals

pg. 139 "great pride in us whose photographs were on his fireplace at Cambridge...

pg 193. "I am describing a tea party in James Strachey's rooms at Cambridge."

A Writer's Diary
pg. 171 " I expect I shall write to you again when I have re-read The Waves. I have been looking in it and talking about it at Cambridge."

pg. 167 " ...will I send a copy of my new book to Count Moira, all Italians are Counts, once he showed four Counts round Cambridge..."

pg 179 "...the common feeling I have with those trusty Cambridge fellows..."

The Waves
pg. 55 " Bernard and Neville, Percival, Archie, Lapernt, and Baker go to Oxford or Cambridge..."

The Years
pg. 254 " 'I can't put a name to him,' he said aloud.  'But I've met him--let me see--where? In Oxford or Cambridge?'"

The Voyage Out
pg. 161 "Either I must go to the bar, or I must stay on in Cambridge. Of course, there are obvious drawbacks to each, but the arguments certainly do seem to me in favour of Cambridge."

pg. 153 "...but Hirst had no taste for music, and a few dancing lessons at Cambridge had only put him into possession of the anatomy of a waltz, without imparitng any of its spirit."

pg. 293 "But at Cambridge, I can remember, there were times when one fell into ridiculous states of semi-coma about five o'clock in the morning."

Mrs. Dalloway
pg. 43 "Striding, staring, he glared at the statue of the Duke of Cambridge. He had been sent down from Oxford--true."

Monday or Tuesday
pg. 14 "Off we went then, some to the British Museum; others to the King's Navy; some to Oxford; others to Cambridge..."

Three Guineas
pg. 35 "History at once informs us that there are now, and have been since 1870, colleges for the sisters of educated men both at Oxford and Cambridge."

pg. 40 "Again, if we help an educated man's daughter to go to Cambridge are we not forcing her to think not about education but about war?"

pg. 104 "With what other purpose were the universities of Oxford and Cambridge founded, save to protect culture and intellectual liberty?"

No comments:

Post a Comment