Virginia Woolf's choice

“A time is coming when men will go mad, and when they see someone who is not mad, they will attack him, saying, “you are mad, you are not like us.”
-From The Saying Of The Desert Fathers

April 1941. The news in England reports the bombing of London by Hitler's air force and blackouts prevails in the cities. In the midst of the press articles, one piece of news went almost unnoticed: Virginia Woolf had not been heard from for several days. It was later learned that the English novelist ended her life by drowning in the River Ouse. 

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She writes this in her farewell letter to her husband:

“Dearest, I feel certain that I am going mad again. I feel we can't go through another of those terrible times. And I shan't recover this time. I begin to hear voices, and I can't concentrate. So I am doing what seems the best thing to do. You have given me the greatest possible happiness. You have been in every way all that anyone could be. I don't think two people could have been happier 'til this terrible disease came. I can't fight any longer. I know that I am spoiling your life, that without me you could work. And you will I know. You see I can't even write this properly. I can't read. What I want to say is I owe all the happiness of my life to you. You have been entirely patient with me and incredibly good. I want to say that – everybody knows it. If anybody could have saved me it would have been you. Everything has gone from me but the certainty of your goodness. I can't go on spoiling your life any longer. I don't think two people could have been happier than we have been. V.”

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