Reviews for Beginning Again Revised

The average rating for Beginning Again Revised based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-08-17 00:00:00 Chad Allgood 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.

Review # 2 was written on 2014-05-20 00:00:00 Thomas Bach So far the strongest of these autobiography volumes. We get the marriage to Virginia, the destruction of the Great War, Leonard's politics (and his rise in said circles), TS Eliot's poetry published by the Woolfs, and the birth of the Hogarth Press. Woolf is critical of himself and others; his eye does not mitigate his opinions then or 'now'. His mind also allows us to continue to take big asides with him, which can be fun and curious (especially when he brings us 20 years away from where his story is currently). George Bernard Shaw's row with Leonard and TS Eliot's acceptance to tea with Virginia with the use of a rhyming poem are particularly fun tidbits delivered here. Virginia's first bouts of mania are troubling. To think I've wanted to read these for ten years and only got a hold of them five years ago, and they have sat on my bookshelf unread until now.