Newly discovered experimental stories by Virginia Woolf—written decades before her celebrated works—will finally see the light of day. The Life of Violet, described by the Washington Post as a "trio of fairy tales," will be published by Princeton University Press next month. Maybe the most interesting part for Woolf aficionados: One story about the titular character Violet describes how she built "a cottage of one's own," which echoes the phrase "a room of one's own," the title of Woolf's famous feminist essay of that title years later.
The stories—written by Woolf at age 25—were rediscovered by Urmila Seshagiri, a University of Tennessee professor, and they were apparently never meant for public consumption. The Guardian describes them as a "spoof biography of a family friend." The manuscript, complete with purple ink and leather binding, contains handwritten notes from both Woolf and her friend Mary Violet Dickinson—the work's real-life inspiration.
Dickinson herself was a striking figure: aristocratic, over six feet tall, and an important presence in Woolf's youth, especially during times of crisis. Their relationship, once described by Woolf as a "romantic friendship," has spurred debate among scholars about its true nature. Seshagiri found Woolf's prose surprisingly polished, with careful edits and subtle shifts that hint at larger questions about how women's stories are told. The tales blend Victorian style with magical elements—a combination Woolf rarely revisited in later works.
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