Autograph letter signed, to Clive Bell.
$17,128 · Offered by Biblio
[Hogarth House, Richmond: 27 November, 1919]. The great battle is between those who think it unreal & those who think it real A long and contemplative letter, written in a close hand to her brother-in-law, Clive Bell, in which Woolf reflects on the early reception of her second novel, Night and Day. Bell offered Woolf some of her earliest encouragement as a novelist; she praised him in one letter as "the first person who ever thought I'd write well" (24 July 1917; Woolf, p. 167). His letter to Woolf, which "arrived on a blue & brilliant morning", was full of praise for Night and Day. Woolf responds appreciatively: "I hope you laid on your colours a little thick. It sounds too good to be true; yet I know you wouldn't deceive your sister in law." The novel, published on 20 October, had already received a smattering of reviews. "They've praised me highly for the most part, & wrongly too; in fact, as criticism, they're worthless so far." She informs Bell of the latest news and gossip about members of her literary circle, name-checking Ottoline Morrell ("she has ransacked Ireland & finds nothing big enough to stick in the teeth of her comb"), Thomas Hardy ("he has just produced his 21st imitation of Tess of the D'Urbervilles"), and fondly recalling a recent weekend with Lytton Strachey and Dora Carrington at Tidmarsh. She also outlines some of the reviews she received from friends: "I couldn't grasp what Katherine [Mansfield] meant, but thought she disliked the book & wouldn't say
- Year: 1919
- Binding: unknown
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