Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) is one of the great literary geniuses of
the 20th century. Her innovative fiction and essays are revered by
readers around the globe. She was a central member of the
Bloomsbury group and a groundbreaking feminist, publishing
book-length essays that continue to change the lives of women
today. Her most popular novels include "To the Lighthouse, Mrs.
Dalloway," and "Orlando." When she was not writing, Virginia Woolf
operated Hogarth Press with her husband Leonard Woolf.
Hermione Lee (1948- ) is the acclaimed Virginia Woolf scholar and
the author of "Virginia Woolf" (Knopf, 1997). She is a biographer,
critic, broadcaster, and Goldsmith's Professor of English
Literature and Fellow of New College, Oxford, England. She is also
the author of "Willa Cather: A Life Saved Up; Philip Roth;
Elizabeth Bowen: An Estimation; The Novels of Virginia Woolf"; and
"Edith Wharton." She is one of the co-editors of the "Oxford Poets
Anthologies."
"The essay has the virtue of suggesting an origin for [Virginia
Woolf's] impassioned, circumnavigatory style: her racing, feverish
mind." THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
"I'd assign my students to read, ten times daily, the first
sentence of Virginia Woolf's brilliant and beautiful essay "On
Being Ill" - until they learned to appreciate the full potential,
the dazzling glory, and the clarity of the complex sentence....
[D]elicate but powerful... an effecting, resonant recapitulation
and illustration of the inadequacy and superfluity of language in
our efforts to describe human suffering." Francine Prose, BOOK
FORUM
"A most unusual and long-neglected reverie on illness, language and
poetry - reprinted by the sterling Paris Press.... Woolf lets her
consciousness roam over the unpredictable terrain of sickness - the
sick body, the sick mind - and how difficult it is for us to find
words to describe this altered state. This is a brilliant and odd
book, charged with restrained emotion and sudden humor." LOS
ANGELES TIMES BOOK REVIEW
"Examining her own familiarity with illness, Woolf undertakes a
rigorous, compassionate, and droll investigation of how illness
shapes the identity of a sick patient, particularly the invalid,
not only affecting his or her perceptions of the world but also
awakening the helplessness of being unable to convey those
perceptions, or the effects of illness, to other. [...] Because of
its enduring relevance, On Being Ill is a necessary and compelling
read. The slender and striking hardbound edition from Paris Press
gives an old text new life." YALE JOURNAL FOR HUMANITIES IN
MEDICINE
" 'On Being Ill' is one of those peculiarly fascinating essays that
Woolf wrote which defy categorization: part mediation, part
autobiography and part critical analysis; it refuses to be
pigeon-holed. [...] I have no hesitation in recommending this new
edition.... Paris Press is a non-profit organization and is to be
congratulated on this sp
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