Adeline Virginia Woolf (25 January 1882 – 28 March 1941) was an English

writer. She is considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century

authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative
device.

- Home schooled
- Encouraged by her father, Woolf began writing professionally in 1900
- In 1912, she married Leonard Woolf, and in 1917, the couple founded
the Hogarth Press, which published much of her work
- had romantic relationships with women

In 1915, she published her first novel, The Voyage Out, through her half-brother's
publishing house, Gerald Duckworth and Company. Her best-known works
include the novels Mrs Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927)
and Orlando (1928). She is also known for her essays, such as A Room of One's
Own (1929). Woolf became one of the central subjects of the 1970s movement of
feminist criticism.

Throughout her life, Woolf was troubled by mental illness. She was
institutionalised several times and attempted suicide at least twice. According to
Dalsimer (2004), her illness was characterised by symptoms that would later be
diagnosed as bipolar disorder, for which there was no effective treatment during
her lifetime.

In 1941, at the age of 59, Woolf committed suicide by drowning herself

- her novel Mrs. Dalloway. With the character Septimus Smith, Woolf combined
her doctor’s terminology with her own unstable states of mind. When Woolf
prepared to write Mrs. Dalloway, she envisioned the novel as a “study of insanity
and suicide; the world seen by the sane and the insane side by side.”

Most notable works:

Woolf's first novel, The Voyage Out, was published in 1915 through her half-
brother's publishing house, Gerald Duckworth and Company. Her best-known
works include the novels Mrs Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), and
Orlando (1928). She is also known for her essays, including A Room Of One's
Own (1929), in which she wrote the much-quoted dictum, "A woman must have
money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."