Louise A. DeSalvo

Mitchell A. Leaska

After they met in 1922, Vita Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf began a passionate relationship that lasted until Woolf's death in 1941. Their revealing correspondence leaves no aspect of their lives untouched. This volume, which features over 500 letters spanning 19 years, includes the writings of both of these literary icons.

The Letters of Vita Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf

Habiba

this left me wordless. i don't know what words should i use to describe this masterpiece. that's art. 

my favorite letter was the one vita wrote for virginia during the height of their romance.. how vulnerable, romantic, and helpless vita was, she left me emotionally exhausted. it becomes very personal to me when i was in love with someone and we both shared huge love and admiration for vita and Virginia's relationship. i remember sending them this letter because at that moment deep down i felt like i am vita. but eventually, everything comes to an end no matter how hard we tried to make it last forever.

"I am reduced to a thing that wants Virginia. I composed a beautiful letter to you in the sleepless nightmare hours of the night, and it has all gone: I just miss you, in a quite simple desperate human way. You, with all your un-dumb letters, would never write so elementary phrase as that; perhaps you wouldn’t even feel it. And yet I believe you’ll be sensible of a little gap. But you’d clothe it in so exquisite a phrase that it would lose a little of its reality. Whereas with me it is quite stark: I miss you even more than I could have believed; and I was prepared to miss you a good deal. So this letter is just really a squeal of pain. It is incredible how essential to me you have become. I suppose you are accustomed to people saying these things. Damn you, spoilt creature; I shan’t make you love me any the more by giving myself away like this—But oh my dear, I can’t be clever and stand-offish with you: I love you too much for that. Too truly. You have no idea how stand-offish I can be with people I don’t love. I have brought it to a fine art. But you have broken down my defences. And I don’t really resent it …

Please forgive me for writing such a miserable letter."

The way this book was put together was really outstanding. The little annotations after each letter really bring them all to life, and do well to fill in the lines. If you’re a fan of Virginia’s work or know much about her, you’re prepared for tragedy going into this. But the final passage really gutted me and echoed in my brain after I read it. Can’t recommend this enough.

The Letters of Vita Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf

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