The Life of Violet
Three Early Stories
The interconnected early stories in Virginia Woolf’s The Life of Violet have radical perspectives on women’s friendships, independence, and places in society.
Violet, a giantess inspired by Woolf’s lifelong friend Violet Dickinson, is centered in the first two stories, mock biographies of Violet’s adolescence as she attempts and fails to enter the world of aristocracy through marriage. When Violet discovers that her virtue lies not in beauty and piety but in her kindness, intelligence, and remarkable ability to inspire laughter and transformation in those around her, she opts to settle in a magical and mysterious “cottage of one’s own.”
Positioning Violet both as a participant in and a deviation from the ideals of her social world, the stories satirize the strict bounds of English society, presenting an alternate vision organized around invention, gaiety, and friendship. This sense of transgression is mirrored by the work’s literary ingenuity, as evidenced by its sudden jumps in time, long self-reflective asides, and elements of magical realism. This radical approach is most evident in the final chapter, which places Violet within a fairy-tale setting in ancient Japan, where two colossal female deities turn the social and religious systems of “Tokio” on their heads.
This rich volume, complete with an afterword and comprehensive textual notes, offers a fresh perspective on Woolf’s early “literary experiments,” treating The Life of Violet not as a tale written to entertain family and friends but as “evidence of a career shaped from the outset by feminist commitments, humor, and determination to breathe new life into literary forms.”
Suffused with delicate magic and penetrating wit, the stories in The Life of Violet foreground a radical world structured by laughter, magic, women’s friendships, and egalitarian social relations.
Reviewed by
Bella Moses
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
