Virginia Woolf & the issue of BIOGRAPHY
I'm reading a highly detailed biography of Virginia Woolf, written by Hermione Lee. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in her writings, it's highly informative.
In the opening chapter of the book, however, I find myself extremely confused. Lee discusses 'biography' and it's importance in Woolf's life. What confuses me is that it makes Woolf appear to be a reformer of biography. I quote;
"Virginia Woolf and her contemporaries are poised on the edge of the revolution which has turned biography into the iconoclastic, gossipy art-form it is now, when the only taboo is censorship."
Here, Lee seems to be saying all of Woolf's works, including 'Orlando' and 'Friendship's Gallery', were signs of progression being made towards the cause of reforming the nature of biography.
I am reading this biography because I know absolutely nothing about Woolf other than a few things here and there. I don't know anything about her as a writer.
I am hoping that other people can perhaps help me. Is Lee's conclusion of Woolf an accurate one?
