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novelesque_life's review
4.0
4 STARS
REISSUED
(I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review).
Ruth Gruber the youngest PhD student to receive her degree takes a look at Virginia Woolf and her analyzes her writing. The first part of the book is the Introduction written by the author. She explains why she wrote this book, on meeting the author she writes about, corresponding with her and Gruber's own academia history. There are also copies of the original letters she discusses in the book. The next part of the book is Gruber's dissertation on Virgina Woolf's writing and her beliefs. One of the major points is that Woolf writes from a feminine voice in a time where everyone else used masculinity. The last part of the book is the reason Gruber reissued her book and those who were instrumental in making that happen.
I choose to read this book because Virginia Woolf as a writer, person and someone suffering from mental illness has always fascinated me. Usually, you see biographies that take some time to analyze her writing as based on her life. Gruber in this book takes the time to look at the voice from which Woolf writes. Gruber outlines how Woolf in most of her writings if not all has a distinct feminine voice. I was a little lost at what the referred to at first but having read Mrs. Dalloway I was able to follow Gruber's examples. I would not recommend this book to everyone as it is not one of those pass along books. Anyone who is a fan of English lit, author's writing background or of Woolf will appreciate Gruber's work.
REISSUED
(I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review).
Ruth Gruber the youngest PhD student to receive her degree takes a look at Virginia Woolf and her analyzes her writing. The first part of the book is the Introduction written by the author. She explains why she wrote this book, on meeting the author she writes about, corresponding with her and Gruber's own academia history. There are also copies of the original letters she discusses in the book. The next part of the book is Gruber's dissertation on Virgina Woolf's writing and her beliefs. One of the major points is that Woolf writes from a feminine voice in a time where everyone else used masculinity. The last part of the book is the reason Gruber reissued her book and those who were instrumental in making that happen.
I choose to read this book because Virginia Woolf as a writer, person and someone suffering from mental illness has always fascinated me. Usually, you see biographies that take some time to analyze her writing as based on her life. Gruber in this book takes the time to look at the voice from which Woolf writes. Gruber outlines how Woolf in most of her writings if not all has a distinct feminine voice. I was a little lost at what the referred to at first but having read Mrs. Dalloway I was able to follow Gruber's examples. I would not recommend this book to everyone as it is not one of those pass along books. Anyone who is a fan of English lit, author's writing background or of Woolf will appreciate Gruber's work.
kikiandarrowsfishshelf's review
5.0
Disclaimer: I got an ARC via Netgalley.
At the end of her study on Virginia Woolf, Ruth Gruber writes,
Gruber is one of those women that people should know more about. This book is her study, her Ph. D. study of Woolf, written when Woolf was still alive and Gruber study in Germany during the rise of Hitler. The reissue of the study includes a foreword by Gruber as well as facsimiles of letters from Woolf and her publishers. In truth, the forward is worth the price of the book, for it is Gruber’s description of her meeting the Woolfs that is fascinating. Gruber captures them so well, her prose transports the reader to the room. The descriptions of Gruber’s decision to go to Germany, of her studies there, and her meeting with Woolf form the perfect introduction to this study of Woolf’s work.
Gruber’s focus on Woolf consists of paying close attention to Woolf’s use of language and description. Gruber than applies that close level of reading to the connection, if any, to Woolf and the male writers who she drew from. Gruber argues that Woolf saw female as creative and male as destroyer. She argues that Woolf used that only prose poetry, but details to highlight how Female things, such as dinner, were just as important as male things, such as sport.
I can hear the student today say, “Yeah, I know this. So what?” Here’s the so what; in her study, in particular in the closing remarks above, Gruber connects Woolf to those woman writers of today. It is though this study that Woolf (and Gruber) and Gruber (and Woolf) foreshadow the coming of such authors as Toni Morrison and A.S. Byatt among others. It is hard to read Gruber’s analysis of Woolf and detail, and not see that influence on Byatt’s Still Life or the similarities in the use of detail and langue in the works of Morrison.
Yet, when I think about this book, I keep thinking about the introduction, the wonderful introduction that describes the introduction of three great minds – Gruber, Leonard Woolf, and Virginia Woolf. The introduction not only describes the meeting in such detail that you are there, but also deals with hero-worship and how one feels after learning what your hero really thinks, this is especially powerful coming from a woman such as Gruber who in her own right is as much of hero, if not more of one, as Woolf. It is this feeling that connects the reader to Gruber in a rather intimate way, the way that occurs whenever a reader discovers that a favored author shares the same literary taste. Here, the feeling is so much that, but that Gruber ‘s sharing of the meeting puts Gruber on even footing with the reader. The reader is not intimidated by a woman who got her Ph D. at the age of twenty and was celebrated for it. Gruber, in the introduction, makes herself one of “us”. She’s still a genius, but the introduction makes her an accessible genius, a human genius, a relatable genius.
And at the same time, while keeping the hero worship idea of Virginia Woolf, does the same thing for the author of Orlando. This is not an easy task, and not many people could have kept the hero worship but shown the humanity. Gruber does, and while her reading of Woolf is “spot on” and thought provoking, it is the introduction to the work that makes Gruber’s book magical.
At the end of her study on Virginia Woolf, Ruth Gruber writes,
The woman of the past found an intimation of the laws of nature, of life and immortality, in bearing children; the woman of the future, retaining this experience, will give it words and form. Virginia Woolf, of the present, is still a seeker, struggling to prepare the world for a woman Shakespeare, a woman Rembrandt, even a woman Christ. She is the transitional link between the past which produced a Jane Austen and the future yet to produce the great "Shakespearianna". Conscious of her limitations, she finds a beautiful gratification in being one of her mediators, one of the spiritual mothers.
The woman she is helping to create will culminate in herself the physical creativeness of the past with mental creativeness of women like Virginia Woolf - the woman of today.
Gruber is one of those women that people should know more about. This book is her study, her Ph. D. study of Woolf, written when Woolf was still alive and Gruber study in Germany during the rise of Hitler. The reissue of the study includes a foreword by Gruber as well as facsimiles of letters from Woolf and her publishers. In truth, the forward is worth the price of the book, for it is Gruber’s description of her meeting the Woolfs that is fascinating. Gruber captures them so well, her prose transports the reader to the room. The descriptions of Gruber’s decision to go to Germany, of her studies there, and her meeting with Woolf form the perfect introduction to this study of Woolf’s work.
Gruber’s focus on Woolf consists of paying close attention to Woolf’s use of language and description. Gruber than applies that close level of reading to the connection, if any, to Woolf and the male writers who she drew from. Gruber argues that Woolf saw female as creative and male as destroyer. She argues that Woolf used that only prose poetry, but details to highlight how Female things, such as dinner, were just as important as male things, such as sport.
I can hear the student today say, “Yeah, I know this. So what?” Here’s the so what; in her study, in particular in the closing remarks above, Gruber connects Woolf to those woman writers of today. It is though this study that Woolf (and Gruber) and Gruber (and Woolf) foreshadow the coming of such authors as Toni Morrison and A.S. Byatt among others. It is hard to read Gruber’s analysis of Woolf and detail, and not see that influence on Byatt’s Still Life or the similarities in the use of detail and langue in the works of Morrison.
Yet, when I think about this book, I keep thinking about the introduction, the wonderful introduction that describes the introduction of three great minds – Gruber, Leonard Woolf, and Virginia Woolf. The introduction not only describes the meeting in such detail that you are there, but also deals with hero-worship and how one feels after learning what your hero really thinks, this is especially powerful coming from a woman such as Gruber who in her own right is as much of hero, if not more of one, as Woolf. It is this feeling that connects the reader to Gruber in a rather intimate way, the way that occurs whenever a reader discovers that a favored author shares the same literary taste. Here, the feeling is so much that, but that Gruber ‘s sharing of the meeting puts Gruber on even footing with the reader. The reader is not intimidated by a woman who got her Ph D. at the age of twenty and was celebrated for it. Gruber, in the introduction, makes herself one of “us”. She’s still a genius, but the introduction makes her an accessible genius, a human genius, a relatable genius.
And at the same time, while keeping the hero worship idea of Virginia Woolf, does the same thing for the author of Orlando. This is not an easy task, and not many people could have kept the hero worship but shown the humanity. Gruber does, and while her reading of Woolf is “spot on” and thought provoking, it is the introduction to the work that makes Gruber’s book magical.
chriswolak's review
Will come back to this in the future, I'm sure, when I read more Woolf. For now I was more interested in Gruber's life than in what she had to say about Woolf.
stefanieh's review
5.0
After having written about the first part of Ruth Gruber's Virginia Woolf: The Will to Create as a Woman, I forgot all about writing on the second part of the book. The first part, as you may recall, is memoir about how Gruber came to be the youngest person to receive a Ph.D, wrote her dissertation on Woolf, and actually got to meet her. The second part of the book is the dissertation Gruber wrote.
Written in 1932, the dissertation examines Woolf's work up to and including The Waves. Gruber's thesis in a nutshell:
The way Gruber sees things Woolf had a choice to write to please the critics and their arbitrary standards, to write in the male novelist tradition, or to create something altogether new and different.
Gruber traces the evolution of Woolf's style through her novels. While it is a decidedly feminist analysis, it is interesting to note that her idea of femininity squares up with the prevailing notions of the time. She therefore says much about "feminine sensitivity" and discusses Woolf's "feminine impressionism."
Gruber makes a really interesting analysis of Orlando as Woolf struggling between a sort of Scilla and Charybdis of critics and male influence in order to find her way into her own style. These days it seems Orlando is talked about mostly as a biography and love letter to Vita Sackville-West. Gruber makes no comment of this and I suspect that at the time, she probably didn't know the two women had been lovers. Her analysis does prove, however, that there is a lot more going on in the book then we generally account for.
Woolf's use of painting and music are traced out through her work. Gruber also notes, "It is the mark of Virginia Woolf’s organic concept of life, that she concludes an endlessness in conflicts."
The Waves, Gruber concludes, shows Woolf as having at last achieved the style she had been working towards.
There is much of interest in this dissertation that I haven't even mentioned. I think much of what Gruber wrote still holds up today. As I was reading, I had to pause in wonder now and then since Gruber wrote it when she was only twenty. Oh, and she wrote it in a year while also taking a full load of classes. She also uses no secondary sources because no one had really done any critical analysis of Woolf at the time. Gruber's range of knowledge about Woolf's work and literature in general left me impressed and envious. How did she know all that without the aid of Google or other critical sources? It's enough to make one feel both lazy and stupid.
I don't think The Will to Create as a Woman would be of interest to everyone, but if Woolf is one of your favorite authors this is a book that will definitely appeal. And here is an interesting non-related tidbit I gleaned from the acknowledgements: author Dava Sobel is Gruber's niece.
Written in 1932, the dissertation examines Woolf's work up to and including The Waves. Gruber's thesis in a nutshell:
Virginia Woolf is determined to write as a woman. Through the eyes of her sex, she seeks to penetrate life and describe it. Her will to explore her femininity is bitterly opposed by the critics, who guard the traditions of men, who dictate to her or denounce her feminine reactions to art and life.
The way Gruber sees things Woolf had a choice to write to please the critics and their arbitrary standards, to write in the male novelist tradition, or to create something altogether new and different.
Gruber traces the evolution of Woolf's style through her novels. While it is a decidedly feminist analysis, it is interesting to note that her idea of femininity squares up with the prevailing notions of the time. She therefore says much about "feminine sensitivity" and discusses Woolf's "feminine impressionism."
Gruber makes a really interesting analysis of Orlando as Woolf struggling between a sort of Scilla and Charybdis of critics and male influence in order to find her way into her own style. These days it seems Orlando is talked about mostly as a biography and love letter to Vita Sackville-West. Gruber makes no comment of this and I suspect that at the time, she probably didn't know the two women had been lovers. Her analysis does prove, however, that there is a lot more going on in the book then we generally account for.
Woolf's use of painting and music are traced out through her work. Gruber also notes, "It is the mark of Virginia Woolf’s organic concept of life, that she concludes an endlessness in conflicts."
As long as there is night and day, light and darkness, there will be antithetic stylists, inimical poets and negating critics. The conclusion that there is no absolute truth in either fact or fancy, structural or rhythmic form, enables her to employ both styles without self-consciousness or doubt.
The Waves, Gruber concludes, shows Woolf as having at last achieved the style she had been working towards.
There is much of interest in this dissertation that I haven't even mentioned. I think much of what Gruber wrote still holds up today. As I was reading, I had to pause in wonder now and then since Gruber wrote it when she was only twenty. Oh, and she wrote it in a year while also taking a full load of classes. She also uses no secondary sources because no one had really done any critical analysis of Woolf at the time. Gruber's range of knowledge about Woolf's work and literature in general left me impressed and envious. How did she know all that without the aid of Google or other critical sources? It's enough to make one feel both lazy and stupid.
I don't think The Will to Create as a Woman would be of interest to everyone, but if Woolf is one of your favorite authors this is a book that will definitely appeal. And here is an interesting non-related tidbit I gleaned from the acknowledgements: author Dava Sobel is Gruber's niece.
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