The Marriage of Heaven and Hell: Manic Depression and the Life of Virginia Woolf
It is no secret that Virginia Woolf suffered from manic depression for most of her life (a notable treatment appears in Panthea Reid's Art and Affection: A Life of Virginia Woolf, LJ 9/15/96). In jargon-laden prose, Dally, a retired psychiatrist living in England, explains that Woolf's difficult childhood and youthAmarked by the death of her motherAlay the chemical and biological groundwork for her later mental illness. This forensic inquiry is possible only because Woolf, a faithful diarist, left "surely the fullest year-by-year record ever of the effect of the disease on a creative life." While interesting reading, this work adds little new insight into Woolf's troubled genius. Discussions of her literary works appear as asidesAor worse, as symptoms of her illness, a serious mistake given the psychological narrative techniques Woolf used so powerfully in novels such as To The Lighthouse and Mrs. Dalloway. Recommended for larger Woolf collections.ADiane Gardner Premo, Rochester P.L., NYCopyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.