{"product_id":"the-life-of-violet-three-early-stories-9780691263137","title":"The Life of Violet: Three Early Stories","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eVirginia Woolf's first fully realized work of fiction--published in its final, revised form for the first time\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eA beguiling trio of fantastical and farcical anti-fairy tales about a giantess who builds a magical \"cottage of one's own,\" battles a silver-scaled sea monster, and defies governesses and gravity alike\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn 1907, eight years before she published her first novel, a twenty-five-year-old Virginia Woolf drafted three interconnected comic stories chronicling the adventures of a giantess named Violet--a teasing tribute to Woolf's friend Mary Violet Dickinson. But it was only in 2022 that Woolf scholar Urmila Seshagiri discovered a final, revised typescript of the stories. The typescript revealed that Woolf had finished this mock-biography, making it her first fully realized literary experiment and a work that anticipates her later masterpieces. Published here for the first time in its final form, \u003ci\u003eThe Life of Violet\u003c\/i\u003e blends fantasy, fairy tale, and satire as it transports readers into a magical world where the heroine triumphs over sea-monsters as well as stifling social traditions. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn these irresistible and riotously plotted stories, Violet, who has powers \"as marvelous as her height,\" gleefully flouts aristocratic proprieties, finds joy in building \"a cottage of one's own,\" and travels to Japan to help create a radical new social order. Amid flights of fancy such as a snowfall of sugared almonds and bathtubs made of painted ostrich eggs, \u003ci\u003eThe Life of Violet\u003c\/i\u003e upends the marriage plot, rejects the Victorian belief that women must choose between virtue and ambition, and celebrates women's friendships and laughter. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA major literary discovery that heralds Woolf's ambitions to revolutionize fiction and sheds new light on her great themes, \u003ci\u003eThe Life of Violet\u003c\/i\u003e is first and foremost a delight to read. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThis volume features a preface, afterword, notes, and photographs that provide rich historical, literary, and biographical context\u003ci\u003e.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eVirginia Woolf\u003c\/b\u003e (1882-1941) was one of the twentieth century's most important writers. In addition to writing ten novels, including \u003ci\u003eMrs. Dalloway\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eTo the Lighthouse\u003c\/i\u003e, Woolf was the cofounder of the Hogarth Press and a prolific essayist and critic. Her manifesto \u003ci\u003eA Room of One's Own\u003c\/i\u003e is a cornerstone of modern feminist thought.\u003cb\u003e Urmila Seshagiri\u003c\/b\u003e is Distinguished Professor of Humanities and Professor of English at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She is the author of \u003ci\u003eRace and the Modernist Imagination\u003c\/i\u003e, the editor of the Oxford World's Classics edition of Virginia Woolf's \u003ci\u003eJacob's Room\u003c\/i\u003e, and a contributor to the \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Princeton University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51635522961682,"sku":"9780691263137","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_26516ffd-13dc-4448-a57e-0cd3602f4d27.jpg?v=1759240684","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-life-of-violet-three-early-stories-9780691263137","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}