Virginia Woolf was born in London to a wealthy family and, unlike her brothers, received her education at home, an unconventional practice for the time. Her parents had children from previous marriages, resulting in a diverse group of siblings, stepbrothers, and stepsisters. Her father, a respected editor and author, was the former son-in-law of William Makepeace Thackeray. Notable literary figures, including James Russell Lowell, Henry James, and George Elliott, were regular visitors and guests at the family home.
Woolf's childhood summers spent at the family home in Cornwall, by Porthminster Bay, are recalled as particularly pleasant, with the Godrevy Lighthouse serving as inspiration for her novel "To the Lighthouse". However, her life was marked by tragedy and mental health struggles. The sudden death of her mother in 1895, when she was 13, and the passing of her sister two years later led to her first mental breakdown. Her father's death in 1904 triggered a complete mental and physical collapse, resulting in her being sent to a mental institution to recover.
Throughout her life, Woolf experienced numerous nervous breakdowns and bouts of severe depression, exacerbated by the trauma of being sexually abused by two of her stepbrothers as a child. Her marriage to Leonard Woolf in 1912 brought her into contact with other literary figures, including Lytton Strachey, Saxon Sydney-Turner, and herself.
Despite her struggles, Woolf continued to write, and her novel "Orlando" is said to have been a love letter to Vita Sackville-West, with whom she had a long-term relationship. After the publication of "Between the Acts", Woolf fell into a deep depression, worsened by the destruction of her London home during the Blitz and the lukewarm reception of her biography of Roger Fry. Her condition deteriorated to the point where she was unable to write or read, and she eventually wrote a note to her husband, stating that she was convinced she was going mad again and would not recover this time. On March 28, 1941, at the age of 59, Woolf walked into the River Ouse, her body later found with heavy stones in her pockets.
