Reviews for Leonard Woolf

The average rating for Leonard Woolf based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-11-19 00:00:00 Paul Hayden I thought I was ready to offer a detailed critique on this one as it irritated me enough to spew out my disappointment to my friends; but when it came to actually reviewing it here it occurred to me it was mediocre enough to not bother wasting too much effort. There is too much in this biography, and yet not enough. While Glendinning offers a good biography of Leonard Woolf, I would have to say there is nothing in here that I didn't already know by reading Woolf's autobiography and his letters. So. What was the point of this book? It's not that she's a bad biographer, or a bad writer, but one expects a little more insight into a person's life if the writer is labelling herself a Woolf biographer. I don't want to rehash the same-old, same-old song about everything that has already been written or said (while getting a few facts wrong along the way). Glendinning inserts her opinion in this work a little too often for my liking. Alternately she is a fawning Woolfite, a bit of a literary snob, and a bit of a social stiff-neck. (I almost abandoned the book in fact, on page 6, when she enumerates Leonard's father's family, and adds, "...also Henry, who was an afterthought or a by-blow... with all the condescension of an ill-bred, ill-mannered socialite.) I cringed for her ungraciousness as she didn't seem to have the sense to do it herself. I did persevere, nonetheless, but found that I was mostly disappointed in the end by her standard, sometimes monotonous, biography of someone who was far from "regular", or boring.

Review # 2 was written on 2009-06-18 00:00:00 Greg Brown Because I've also read Victoria Glendinning's excellent biography of Vita Sackville-West, and now her life of Leonard Woolf, I think she knows these people well. Leonard was a person who certainly deserved the attention this book provides. Despite his own considerable achievements as writer and publisher, he's obviously important as the first critic and care-giver and "nurturer" (Glendinning's word) of Virginia Woolf. He played a very large role in making it possible for her to have the health and creative atmosphere in which to produce the literary milestones her novels are. And he carefully single-handedly preserved what he considered important in her personal writings that help form much of the critical basis and appreciation of her work, the diaries and letters. Glendinning doesn't break new ground in Virginia Woolf studies. She doesn't reveal any startling new facts or perspectives. But she shows that Leonard is interesting in his own right, and she allows him to stand outside Virginia's shadow so we can see him clearly. One thing did surprise me: the nagging symptoms and effects of Virginia's illness are here portrayed as overpowering and constantly threatening, always at crisis. Other books about Virginia and her circle aren't so dark on this point.