top of page

Beginning a New Year*

1925, Tuesday 6 January

 

The disgraceful truth is that I shall run year into year, for I can't waste so many blank pages. What a flourish I began 1924 with! And today, for the 165th time, Nelly has given notice— Won't be dictated to: must do as other girls do. This is the fruit of Bloomsbury. On the whole, I'm inclined to take her at her word. The nuisance of arranging life to suit her fads, & the pressure of 'other girls' is too much, good cook though she is, & honest, crusty old maid too, dependable, in the main, affectionate, kindly, but incurably fussy, nervy, unsubstantial. Anyhow, the servant question no longer much worries me.

Last night we dined at 3 Albert Road Mary's new villa.
I like the new year to begin with warm friendly feelings—& it was a superb dinner. There were the children too, a nice girl & boy; a girl with lovely woman's eyes, sympathetic, startled; & wild like a girl. (I want to begin to describe my own sex.) What do I mean about the expression? Extreme youth, & yet, one felt, this feeling has been existing forever; very feminine. Here I conceive my story—but I'm always conceiving stories now. Short ones—scenes—for instance The Old Man (a character of L.S.) The Professor on Milton—(an attempt at literary criticism) & now The Interruption, women  talking alone. However, back to life. Where are we?


I spent this morning writing a note on an E[lizabe]than play—for which I have been reading plays all this year. Then I found the minute hand of my watch had come off (this was talking to Lytton about [Samuel] Richardson last night—I found it off then): so I went into the printing room to see the time—found Angus & Leonard doing Simkin's bill. Stayed & laughed. L. went off to the office, when we had dog-walked round the Square. I came in & set a page of Nancy. Then out to Ingersoll to get my watch mended. Then dog walked. Then here. It being a black grained winter day; lengths of the pavement ink black where not lighted. Never shall I describe all the days I have noticed. I cannot hit it off, quite, & yet perhaps if I read this again I shall see what I meant then.

Rodmell was all gale & flood; these words are exact. The river overflowed. We had 7 days rain out of 10. Often I could not face a walk. L. pruned, which needed heroic courage. My heroism was purely literary. I revised Mrs D[alloway]: the dullest part of the whole business of writing; the most depressing & exacting. The worst part is at the beginning (as usual) where the aeroplane has it all to itself for some pages, & it wears thin. L. read it; thinks it my best—but then has he not got to think so? Still I agree. He thinks it has more continuity than J[acob]s R[oom]. but is difficult owing to the lack of connection, visible, between the two themes.

 

Anyhow it is sent off to Clarks, & proofs will come next week. This is for Harcourt Brace, who has accepted without seeing & raised me to 15 p.c.

Snail, Spiral, Wave
Snail, Spiral, Wave

In this diary entry, 6 January 1925, what we hear among all the other things in Virginia Woolf's voice is her maturing self cherishing friendship and company. She is 44 at the time of making this entry, and she is fully cognizant of a new year unfolding itself with many ups and downs as ever including servants giving notice for the 165th time, which she wittily names "the servant question." She decides to record a series of details from different aspects of her daily life feeling that "she can't waste so many blank pages".

 

In this short piece, we can hear Woolf's genuine voice so intimately as she records "the atoms falling incessantly, shaping themselves into Monday or Tuesday": the servant question, dinner at Mary's new villa at 3 Albert Road, her love of children, writing a note on an Elizabethan play, going to Ingersoll to get her watch mended, the ink blank lengths of the pavement when unlit, revising Mrs Dalloway, "the dullest part of the whole business of writing", Leonard's comparison of it to Jacob's Room. In this brief entry, we see her, also, recording the way she conceives stories; she does one at the dinner she mentions here.

 

So, we catch a glimpse of Virginia on an ordinary day, on 6 January, 1925 in the way she aims to give us the characters she conceives: without the tyranny of plot, without having to talk of love or tragedy only, giving us a myriad of impressions/atoms as truthfully as possible, and as they fall.

 

Most significantly, on one of the earliest days of the new year, she makes an important comment which shows how central it is for her to be in the company of friends. Parties, gatherings, meetings were an embrace, a perfect setting for communication making her appreciate the presence of others, and her revived belief and hope in the new year to bring good things.

 

"I like the new year to begin with warm friendly feelings"

 

May the new year generate these feelings in the warm company of Virginia Woolf's friends creating diverse forms of art through her.

​

*This was part of the "Winter Reading, December 2023" event hosted by the Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain and shared by Mine Özyurt Kılıç.

WhatsApp Image 2025-01-01 at 23.29.38.jpeg
bottom of page