Virginia Woolf | Guy Portman's Blog

4 Female Writers’ Writing Styles

Apr 17 2015

Every author, myself included, has his/her own distinctive writing style. Earlier this year I dedicated a blog post to 4 famous male writers’ writing styles.

This week’s blog post is dedicated to 4 famous female writers’ writing styles:

Virginia Woolf

(January 25th 1882 – March 28th 1941)

Notable works: To the Lighthouse, Mrs Dalloway, A Room of One’s Own

Novelist and critic Virginia Woolf was an influential interwar writer and one of the foremost modernists of the 20th Century. Woolf embraced an experimental stream of consciousness writing style, in which the subjective impressions of her protagonists formed the narrative. This writing device is in evidence in her novel Mrs Dalloway, in which Woolf parallels a single day in the lives of two people, adeptly portraying their internal emotions. This was a marked shift from the rigid objectivism of 19th Century fiction. Her rhetorical, informal personal style, effective use of metaphors, similes and symbolism continue to endear her to readers to this day.

George Eliot

(22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880)

Notable works: The Mill on the Floss, Middlemarch, Daniel Deronda

Mary Ann Evans was an author who used the male pen name George Eliot in order that she be taken seriously by the literary establishment. Her most famous novel, Middlemarch, is widely regarded as one of the greatest English language novels ever written. Her writing style incorporated an unusual style of phrasing, deep psychological insights, sophisticated character portraits, religious themes, highly original use of metaphors, comical elements and realism. Eliot also had a distinctive narrative voice, which some have criticised her for, because it often disrupts the action and casts judgement on the given event, as it is taking place.

Emily Dickinson

(10th December 1830 – 15th May 1886)

The reclusive Emily Dickinson was a prolific American poet, who penned over 1700 poems. Dickinson’s early poetry was fairly conventional, but her writing style became increasingly innovative and idiosyncratic. Her lineation, punctuation, capitalisation and extensive use of dashes were highly unusual. Most of Dickinson’s poems were written in short stanzas, the majority being quatrains, whilst other stanzas employed triplets and pairs of couplets as well as partial rhyming schemes. She also experimented with Iambic rhythms. The flexible and innovative structures of her poems, the conciseness of her language and the blending of different themes, such as the homely and exalted, in addition to her use of metaphors were in stark contrast to the rigid conventions of her era.

Jane Austen

(16th December 1775 – 18th July 1817)

Notable works: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Emma and Persuasion

Jane Austen employed an elegant, experimental and innovative writing style. In contrast to other early 19th Century authors, Jane Austen’s novels have considerably more dialogue and much less description and narrative. She adroitly utilised indirect speech, burlesque, parody and realism to critique the portrayal of women in 18th Century literature, in addition to the perceived role of women during her own era. But it is her constant, imaginative use of irony that she is probably best known for. Austen utilised irony to highlight the social hypocrisy of her time, particularly with regards to marriage and social divisions.

8 Authors Who Committed Suicide

Dec 05 2014

Admittedly this is a rather depressing subject for a blog post, but it is an interesting one. Here are 8 famous authors who committed suicide:

Anne Sexton

(November 9th 1928 – October 4th 1974)

Anne Sexton was a Pulitzer Prize winning American poet. Themes in her confessional style verse included her mental instability and depression. On October 4th 1974 the 45 year-old poet put on her mother’s old fur coat, poured herself a glass of vodka, locked herself in her garage, started the engine of her car and died of carbon monoxide poisoning.

Hunter S. Thompson

(July 18th 1937 – February 20th 2005)

The father of Gonzo journalism was an iconic figure in the counter-culture. Hunter S. Thompson suffered from health problems in later life, culminating in him shooting himself in the head aged 67. His ashes were fired out of a cannon in a ceremony funded by friend and star of the movie adaptation of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Johnny Depp.

Click here to read my review of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Yukio Mishima

(January 14th 1925 – November 25th 1970)

Yukio Mishima is widely considered to be Japan’s greatest ever author. On November 25th 1968 Mishima and 4 members of his private militia barricaded themselves in the Tokyo headquarters of the Eastern Command of Japan’s self-defence forces. Having delivered a speech from the balcony to the soldiers below, Mishima committed Seppuku, a Japanese ritual suicide consisting of disembowelment followed by beheading.

Ernest Hemingway

(July 21st 1899 – July 2nd 1961)

Ernest Hemingway is today remembered as a pillar of American literature. His accolades include winning The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1953) and The Nobel Prize in Literature (1954). In the early morning hours of July 2nd 1961, following a period of deteriorating health and depression, Hemingway shot himself in the head with his favourite shotgun.

Click here to read my review of The Old Man and the Sea

John Berryman

(October 25th 1914 – January 7th 1972)

John Berryman was an American poet, scholar, and a key figure in the Confessional school of poetry. The poet was a heavy drinker for much of his life. He also suffered from periods of emotional instability. On January 7th 1972 Berryman met his demise when he plunged to his death from a bridge in Minneapolis.

Virginia Woolf

(January 25th 1882 – March 28th 1941)

Novelist and critic Virginia Woolf was an influential interwar writer and one of the foremost modernists of the 20th Century. Shortly after finishing the manuscript of her last novel, Between the Acts, Woolf entered a deep depression. On the 28th March 1941 the author put on her overcoat, filled her pockets with stones and walked out into the River Ouse near her home in Sussex.

Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

Akutagawa

(March 1st 1892 – July 24th 1927)

Akutagawa was a Japanese writer, who is considered to be the father of the Japanese short story. Japan’s premier literary award, the Akutagawa Prize, is named after him. The author suffered from deteriorating physical and mental health, and at the age 35 he committed suicide by taking an overdose of Veronal.

Sylvia Plath

(October 27th 1932 – February 11th 1963)

Sylvia Plath was well known for her poetry during her short-life. Examples of her early success included winning The Glascock Prize for poetry in 1955. Plath, who had a history of depression, committed suicide in 1963, by poisoning herself with carbon monoxide in her own kitchen. She went on to achieve posthumous fame.

Click here to read my review of The Bell Jar

Bizarre Author Deaths I

Nov 15 2013

This, the first instalment of my latest series about authors, is dedicated to two bizarre author deaths. I chose this rather macabre subject matter as death is one of the themes in my second novel, Necropolis, a humorous work of dark fiction, due for release early next year (date to be confirmed soon).

Virginia Woolf

(January 25th 1882 – March 28th 1941)

Notable works: To The Lighthouse, Mrs Dalloway, Orlando: A Biography, A Room of One’s Own.

Novelist, essayist, publisher and critic Virginia Woolf was an influential interwar writer and an important member of the prominent Bloomsbury Group of intellectuals. Regarded today as a foremost modernist and one of the major English language lyrical novelists, Virginia Woolf was an experimental writer, who achieved considerable popular and critical success during her lifetime. Her notable works include the experimental parodic biography, Orlando: A Biography, in which the hero’s life spans three centuries and both genders.

Woolf’s existence was not without its tribulations however. The talented writer suffered from depression throughout her life, several episodes in her younger years being so severe that she was sent to a mental institution. It was the onset of World War II and the destruction of Woolf’s London home in The Blitz, alongside the poor reception of her biography of late friend Roger Fry that were to send matters spiralling out of control.

Shortly after finishing the manuscript of her last novel, Between the Acts (posthumously published), Woolf entered a deep depression. On the 28th March 1941 the author put on her overcoat, filled the pockets with stones and walked out into the River Ouse near her home in Sussex. After her body was finally discovered on the 18th April, Woolf’s husband, political theorist and author Leonard Woolf, had her cremated remains buried under an elm tree in the garden of their home in Rodmell.

Tennessee Williams

(March 26th 1911 – February 25th 1983)

Notable works: The Glass Menagerie, A Street Car Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

American playwright Tennessee Williams found fame with his play The Glass Menagerie (1944), a big hit on Broadway in New York. More success followed and by 1959 Williams had two Pulitzer Prizes, three New York Drama Critics Awards, three Donaldson Awards and a Tony Award to his name.

However the glory was not to last and the 1960s’ and 70s’ saw the talented playwright facing professional failures and personal problems. These may in part have been due to his increasing alcohol and drug consumption, as well as the death of former partner Frank Merlo in 1963. Beloved sister Rose being diagnosed with schizophrenia and his own dysfunctional upbringing, Williams’s father was a heavy drinker with a violent temper and his mother overbearing, could also have been factors in the playwright’s descent into depression, drugs and commitments to mental health facilities.

On the morning of February 26th 1983, Williams was found dead in his suite at the Elysee Hotel in New York. The medical examiner’s report indicated that the cause of death was Williams having choked to death on a cap from a bottle of eye drops. It was noted that alcohol and drugs might have contributed to his demise, as they may have suppressed the gag reflex. The bizarre nature of the playwright’s death was to be the subject of much scrutiny over the forthcoming years. A forensic detective who reviewed the file stated that it was an overdose that killed Williams, whilst friend Scott Kenan claimed someone in the coroner’s office invented the bottle cap scenario.