The Measure of Life: Virginia Woolf's Last Years

The story of Virginia Woolf's life as a working writer from 1930 until her suicide in 1941 - turbulent years that inspired powerful social criticism and major novels. Focusing on Woolf during the approach and arrival of World War II, the author offers a portrait of the writer in a time of worldwide crisis. A constant awareness of personal danger, Herbert Marder says, coloured Woolf's decisions in the years leading up to the war. A manic depressive, she had tried to kill herself in her youth and still thought of suicide. No matter how bright the present appeared, Woolf knew that severe illness and depression lay in wait for her. "The Measure of Life" traces a pattern of recurring references to water and drowning, strongly suggesting that Woolf anticipated her suicide many years before the event. Marder's account of her death pays special attention to her relationship with her doctor and distant cousin, Octavia Wilberforce. An appendix contains Wilberforce's letters about Woolf's last months, including some previously unpublished passages. Marder shows the importance of small details of daily life, the unspoken quarrels and casual displays of courage that provide a key, as Woolf herself believed, to the hidden root of our existence. The biography is Marder's attempt to bring Woolf to life, not by trying to explain her actions, but by establishing her presence and letting the reader see events as she saw them.