Virginia Woolf, the War Without, the War Within

Barbara Lounsberry has done for Woolf's diaries what the diaries once did for Woolf's novels, and what all great literary criticism seeks to do: It takes a canonical work of literature and offers an entirely new way of seeing it."— New Republic

"Lounsberry uses these [diaries] to demonstrate that as fascism flourished and dear friends died, diaries—as a lifeline and a path forward—became integral to both Woolf's doing and her undoing. . . . Essential."—Choice

"In her comprehensive, close readings of Woolf's entire diary, Lounsberry significantly advances scholarship on Woolf's most sustained literary endeavor. . . . Lounsberry enhances our understanding of the diary as a genre informed by its own traditions, aesthetics, and intertextual networks throughout history. She also showcases how Woolf's diary is itself a work of art."—Review of English Studies