PREFACE BY LYNDALL GORDON312ppISBN 9781903155332 The Wise Virgins (1914) is a semi-autobiographical novel about a dilemma: whether Harry, the hero, should go into the family business and marry the suitable but dull girl next door or move in artistic circles and marry one of the entrancing 'Lawrence' girls. For, as Lyndall Gordon writes: 'It is a truth widely acknowledged that Camilla Lawrence is a portrait of the author's wife – Virginia Woolf.' This is one reason why the novel is so intriguing. But it is also a Forsterian social comedy, funny, perceptive, highly intelligent, full of clever dialogue and at times bitterly satirical; while the dramatic and emotional dénouement still retains a great deal of its power to shock. It was on his honeymoon in 1912 that Leonard Woolf began writing The Wise Virgins, his second (and final) novel. He was 31, newly returned from seven years as a colonial administrator, and asking himself much the same questions as his hero. One of the great interests of The Wise Virgins today is that Leonard Woolf, though a key behind-the-scenes political figure, is now mostly remembered for being Virginia Woolf’s husband. The novel is thus a roman à clef about loving someone very different from oneself, but reads at times like a parody both of the Bloomsbury Group and of Leonard’s Jewish family: it is about class distinction but is also about a young man at odds with his family and confused about love. In addition, it is a novel about feminism, which Leonard called ’the belief or policy of all sensible men’; the fight for women to have the vote, then at its height, is integral to the book. For more on The Wise Virgins, have a look at the Persephone Perspective. Endpaper The endpaper we chose is 'White', an Omega Workshop linen designed by Vanessa Bell, Virginia Woolf's sister, in 1913. Picture Caption Leonard Woolf and Virginia Stephen in July 1912, the month before their wedding.
