1916–21: A Press of One’s Own

Abstract

With the publication of her first novel behind her, Virginia Woolf regained her composure. She had found that a viable way of living was after all possible. She was to have a marriage, but it would be without sex. She would not have children. In spite of everything, she and Vanessa remained close. Above all, she had proved herself as a writer. Her career had begun. She was thirty-three and she still had a very long way to go before she would find her own distinctive way of writing. But the terrible experiences of the years 1910–15 were never to be repeated with anything like that ferocity.

‘It amounts to a sense of freedom. I write what I like writing and there’s an end on it.’ (D II, 17 February 1922)