Virginia Woolf Trivia Quiz

Answer: Adeline Virginia Stephen

Virginia Woolf's father was Sir Leslie Stephen, the versatile scholar and an eminent Victorian intellectual. He was also the editor of 'The Dictionary of National Biography'.

Answer: The Goat

There were a large number of children in the household of Sir Leslie Stephen. In her childhood Woolf got the nickname of 'the Goat'. Whatever may have been the reason for it, it doesn't sound altogether flattering!

Answer: Hans

It had a very bad habit of falling asleep at parties. Moreover, it was prone to illness.

Answer: By jumping from a window

However, it was an abortive attempt. She did not succeed because the window was not that high. Some believe she developed mental illness because of her family environment.

Answer: At home: she was homeschooled

She received a broad education, mainly from her father and to some extent, during vacations, also from her brothers. She also had the unrestricted use of father's extensive library. She proceeded to King's College, London, where she followed courses in Latin, Greek, German and History.

Answer: Her half-brothers

James King, the biographer of Virginia Woolf and Lee Marsh, the researcher, state that Virginia Woolf was a victim of sexual abuse in her childhood (from about age 7-14) by her much older half-brothers (sons of her mother by her first marriage) - George and Gerald Duckworth. This, said James King, left her with a lasting distrust of men. George Duckworth also abused her sister Vanessa. (Lee Marsh and James King, researcher and biographer respectively). She herself confirmed the matter in a letter. (Woolf, Letters, 12 January, 1941).

Whether this abuse triggered or even caused her tendency to severe depressions is a matter that has been widely speculated on.

Answer: Ouse

She committed suicide in 1941 by drowning herself in the River Ouse near Lewes, East Sussex, England. She was 59 at that time.

(Obviously, this was the Sussex Ouse, not to be confused with the better known Yorkshire Ouse or the Great Ouse in Eastern England).

Answer: The Voyage Out

Virginia Woolf was a prolific writer. She wrote nine novels and a number of essays. She was an exponent of the 'stream of consciousness' technique. Her first novel, entitled 'The Voyage Out' was published in 1915. However, the novel was originally entitled 'Melymbrosia'. It was published by Gerald Duckworth and Company, Ltd.

Answer: Edward Albee

"Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" is a three-act play by Edward Albee.It was published in 1962. It is _not_ about Virginia Woolf: the title is a jocular parody of "Who's Afraid of Big Bad Wolf?". It is about a middle-aged professor and his wife who humiliate and torment one another verbally. In this play Albee urges us to maintain restraint and practice compassion in domestic life.

Answer: The Bloomsbury Group

The Bloomsbury Group, also known as the Bloomsbury Set, was an elite group of prominent liberal and left-wing writers, philosophers, economists, artists and critics from about 1907 to 1940. It was established by Virginia Woolf's brother Thoby and his Cambridge friends.

The members used to meet in the Bloomsbury area of London to discuss issues relating to philosophy, art, society, etc. It was not a school of any new thought. It was open to almost all the intellectual issues of the time. Virginia Woolf was a co-founder and an influential member of the Group.

They propounded the idea of 'Art for Art's sake'.