COSMOS:AN INSTITUTE OF ENGLISH LITERATURE,LANGUAGE AND INDIC STUDIES

www.englishcosmos.org
www.mukeshpareek.com (9828402032)
Dr. MUKESH PAREEK 14 NET ,3 JRF ,2 M.Phil
Youtube channel : English for UGC NET by Dr.Mukesh Pareek

A QUIZ ON VIRGINIA WOOLF

1. Virginia Woolf is a familiar name to the English readers. What was her birth name?

A. Adeline Virginia Stephen

B.George Eliot

C.Jane Austen

D.Emily Bronte

Adeline Virginia Stephen

Virginia Woolf's father was Sir Leslie Stephen, the versatile scholar and an eminent Victorian
intellectual. He was also the editor of 'The Dictionary of National Biography'.

2. Virginia Woolf was the daughter of Sir Leslie Stephen. She had an odd nickname as a young
child. What was it?

A.The Goat

B.The Wolf

C.The Lioness

D.The Goose The Goat

There were a large number of children in the household of Sir Leslie Stephen. In her childhood Woolf
got the nickname of 'the Goat'. Whatever may have been the reason for it, it doesn't sound
altogether flattering!

3. Virginia Woolf had a pet dog. What was the name of the dog?

Spark

Jimmy

Spike

Hans

Hans It had a very bad habit of falling asleep at parties. Moreover, it was prone to illness.
COSMOS:AN INSTITUTE OF ENGLISH LITERATURE,LANGUAGE AND INDIC STUDIES
www.englishcosmos.org
www.mukeshpareek.com (9828402032)
Dr. MUKESH PAREEK 14 NET ,3 JRF ,2 M.Phil
Youtube channel : English for UGC NET by Dr.Mukesh Pareek

4. Virginia Woolf thought of committing suicide many times. How did Woolf try to commit suicide
when she was 22?

By poisoning herself

By drowning herself

By hanging herself

By jumping from a window

By jumping from a window

However, it was an abortive attempt. She did not succeed because the window was not that high.
Some believe she developed mental illness because of her family environment.

5. Where did Virginia Woolf obtain her high schooling?

At home: she was home schooled

Cheltenham Ladies' College

Notting Hill and Bayswater High School

Roedean

At home: she was homeschooled

She received a broad education, mainly from her father and to some extent, during vacations, also
from her brothers. She also had the unrestricted use of father's extensive library. She proceeded to
King's College, London, where she followed courses in Latin, Greek, German and History.

6. Virginia Woolf was sexually abused over a period of several years in childhood. Who abused
her?

An uncle,/ Her half-brothers,/ A neighbor,/ No such thing happened

Her half-brothers

James King, the biographer of Virginia Woolf and Lee Marsh, the researcher, state that Virginia
Woolf was a victim of sexual abuse in her childhood (from about age 7-14) by her much older half-
brothers (sons of her mother by her first marriage) - George and Gerald Duckworth. This, said James
King, left her with a lasting distrust of men. George Duckworth also abused her sister Vanessa. (Lee
Marsh and James King, researcher and biographer respectively). She herself confirmed the matter in
a letter. (Woolf, Letters, 12 January, 1941).

Whether this abuse triggered or even caused her tendency to severe depressions is a matter that
has been widely speculated on.
COSMOS:AN INSTITUTE OF ENGLISH LITERATURE,LANGUAGE AND INDIC STUDIES
www.englishcosmos.org
www.mukeshpareek.com (9828402032)
Dr. MUKESH PAREEK 14 NET ,3 JRF ,2 M.Phil
Youtube channel : English for UGC NET by Dr.Mukesh Pareek

7. Virginia Woolf was always haunted by a desire to kill herself. What was the name of the river in
which she ultimately drowned herself ?

Wye

Orwell

Seine

Ouse

Ouse She committed suicide in 1941 by drowning herself in the River Ouse near Lewes, East Sussex,
England. She was 59 at that time.

(Obviously, this was the Sussex Ouse, not to be confused with the better known Yorkshire Ouse or
the Great Ouse in Eastern England).

8. Virginia Woolf penned altogether nine novels. What was the title of the first one?

The Voyage Out/ Mrs.Dalloway,/ To the Lighthouse,/The Waves

The Voyage Out

Virginia Woolf was a prolific writer. She wrote nine novels and a number of essays. She was an
exponent of the 'stream of consciousness' technique. Her first novel, entitled 'The Voyage Out' was
published in 1915. However, the novel was originally entitled 'Melymbrosia'. It was published by
Gerald Duckworth and Company, Ltd.

9. "Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf?" was a famous drama of the 1960s. Who wrote it?

Virginia Woolf

Lytton Strachey

A.N. Whitehead

Edward Albee

Edward Albee

"Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" is a three-act play by Edward Albee.It was published in 1962. It is
_not_ about Virginia Woolf: the title is a jocular parody of "Who's Afraid of Big Bad Wolf?". It is
about a middle-aged professor and his wife who humiliate and torment one another verbally. In this
play Albee urges us to maintain restraint and practice compassion in domestic life.

10. Woolf had a close association with one of the most renowned literary and intellectual groups
of her time. Which was it?

The Pre-Raphaelite Group

COSMOS:AN INSTITUTE OF ENGLISH LITERATURE,LANGUAGE AND INDIC STUDIES
www.englishcosmos.org
www.mukeshpareek.com (9828402032)
Dr. MUKESH PAREEK 14 NET ,3 JRF ,2 M.Phil
Youtube channel : English for UGC NET by Dr.Mukesh Pareek

The Writers' Forum

The Bloomsbury Group

The London Literary Circle The Bloomsbury Group

The Bloomsbury Group, also known as the Bloomsbury Set, was an elite group of prominent liberal
and left-wing writers, philosophers, economists, artists and critics from about 1907 to 1940. It was
established by Virginia Woolf's brother Thoby and his Cambridge friends. The members used to meet
in the Bloomsbury area of London to discuss issues relating to philosophy, art, society, etc. It was not
a school of any new thought. It was open to almost all the intellectual issues of the time. Virginia
Woolf was a co-founder and an influential member of the Group. They propounded the idea of 'Art
for Art's sake'.

11. "Mr. Bennet and Mrs. Brown" is Woolf’s treatise on

a. modern fiction
b. the feminist movement
c. the state of England

d.about colonialism

12. With the royalties from Mrs. Dalloway one of the author’s proud purchases was
a. two new toilets and a bathroom
b. two pair of secateurs and a wheelbarrow
c. twelve bantam hens and wire fencing
d. two electric fires and a new cooker

13. Woolf’s 1933 biography Flush is about

a. an overlooked Pre-Raphaelite female artist
b. the leader of the Women’s Suffrage movement
c. Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s dog

d.Her husband

14. Two key texts that are major contributions to feminist theory are A Room of One’s Own and
a. Between the Acts
b. Three Guineas
c. Letter to a Young Poet

15. The fantastic biography Orlando was inspired by

a. Vita Sackville-West
b. Vanessa Bell
c. Christina Rossetti

16. The title of two collections of essays, The Common Reader, is taken from which author and which
work?

Ans- Samuel Johnson from his Lives of the Poets, Thomas Grey
COSMOS:AN INSTITUTE OF ENGLISH LITERATURE,LANGUAGE AND INDIC STUDIES
www.englishcosmos.org
www.mukeshpareek.com (9828402032)
Dr. MUKESH PAREEK 14 NET ,3 JRF ,2 M.Phil
Youtube channel : English for UGC NET by Dr.Mukesh Pareek

17. Hogarth Press, set up by the Woolfs, did not publish which of these authors?
a. T.S. Eliot
b. Sigmund Freud
c. Charles Darwin
d. Dostoevsky

18. Woolf liked to give animal aliases to people. Her husband was Mongoose, her sister Vanessa was
Dolphin. What was she?

Ans- Goat

19. What famous American poet was Virginia's godfather?

a.James Russell Lowell

b.Robert Frost

c.Robert Lowell

d.Charles Simic

20. What did art critic Roger Fry do in 1910 that caused a major scandal in London?

a. Paint a picture of a nude woman

b. Deface the Mona Lisa

c. Organize an art exhibit of Postimpressionist painters

d. Call Rembrandt's paintings "garbage"