The Keep

Letters of Love Between Virginia and Leonard Woolf

Aaron Asparin

The materiality of the document was quite well preserved, in darkened, yellowish paper which were quite easy to work with since they were in plastic sleeves. These were letters of correspondence between both Virginia Woolf and her to-be husband, Leonard Woolf. The document is handwritten, which made it all the more difficult to actually read (some of which I could not even understand). There are no letterheads, but the handwriting and the use of pet names were quite defining features. The document gives us, researchers and archivists, an understanding of Virginia and Leonard Woolf’s relationship. Without these letters, we would likely have difficulty understanding how they interacted, their feelings towards each other, because at this point in time, no one else was reading these letters– thus, these letters are a gateway into their isolated, personal lives. It tells a story of how their love for each other worked, and serves a purpose for characterizing these intellectuals. What was surprising to me is how Virginia Woolf reacts to Leonard Woolf in these letters. While Leonard Woolf is constantly showering her with love and praise, Virginia Woolf retaliates with complete and utter annoyance. At one point, she even makes it perfectly clear that when Leonard kissed her, Virginia felt like a rock. It challenged my pre-existing assumptions that all forms of love are what they see in the movies, and thus now I have learned that perhaps insults and snarky remarks are just Virginia Woolf’s love language. This archival center was specifically great, as it was deliberately designed with the intent of archivism. It was amazing to be able to see the stacks of documents, as well as engage with the primary documents being displayed for us by the archivists. The primary documents were amazing– especially the letters of correspondence between Virginia and Leonard Woolf, but also Virginia’s journals and scratch books. 

“The first illusion that must be cast aside is that of the definitive truthful narrative.  A historical narrative is a construction, not a truthful discourse that can be verified on all of its points.  This narrative must combine scholarship with arguments that can introduce the criteria of truthfulness and plausibility.  The poet creates, the historian argues.  He [they] rearticulates past systems of relationships through the representation of the social community he [they] studies, and through his [their] own system of values and norms.  History’s goal is the understanding of a time and a world” (94). 

This quote, to me, means that through these documents, we can create a narrative that matches all of the documentation given, in the context of the historical period these documents were written in. Thus, it allows us to create a vivid picture of how people behaved, and allows us to combine aspects of each document to form our understanding of a person or time. For example, this directly relates to Virginia and Leonard Woolf– through their intimate letters, we can understand some of their motivations to write, and influences in their writing, as well as how they felt about relationships which was a predominant topic in the Bloomsbury Group.

A quote that represents this archival search is: "But nothing is so strange when one is in love (and what was this except being in love?) as the complete indifference of other people" (Mrs. Dalloway, Woolf).

This quote is completely representative of the love between the Woolfs-- so awkward, so weird, and yet so completely human and personal to their lives that it was the best kind of love to them (well, at least Leonard)! Reading the preserved letters between Leonard and Virginia Woolf had so instantly reminded me of this quote from Mrs. Dalloway. It is important to note-- not just in analysis of the lives of the Woolfs, but also for personal use, that love will be what it wants to be. No matter how strange, weird, or peculiar a love might be, true love will always be in indifference of other people-- so who cares!