Beginning Again - An Autobiography of The Years 1911 to 1918

At the heart of this volume of Leonard Woolf's autobiography are his discussions of his wife, Virginia Woolf. The author recounts his falling in love with Virginia, their marriage, and, most significantly, accounts of their life together during Virginia's recurring bouts with mental illness. Mr. Woolf's deep and profound understanding of his wife's condition and his recollections of its impact on their life is both an important contribution to an understanding of Virginia's life and work, and an achingly moving portrait of Leonard's love for her. We must again remember that Mr. Woolf is writing in 1963 about events in the years 1911 through 1918. His ability to relate not simply a sequence of events, but to capture the emotional qualities of those events at such far remove is extremely impressive. I also find Mr. Woolf's writing to be wonderful. This example is one of my favorite sentences in the book, where he is describing the effect on him of Virginia launching into a flight of conversation: "It always made me think of the breaking and gushing out of the springs in autumn after the first rains." In addition to giving the reader an appreciation of the life of Leonard Woolf, this book provides an invaluable contribution to our understanding of Virginia Woolf.