Previously Unpublished Novel Written by Virginia Woolf at Age 25 Discovered

Woolf Manuscript Discovered by Scholar by Chance
Predates Her First Novel "The Voyage Out" by Eight Years
"A Work Sparkling with Humor"

A previously unpublished novel manuscript written by the world-renowned British author Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) at the age of 25 (in 1907) has been discovered and will be published in the United Kingdom next month. This novel predates "The Voyage Out," which is known as Woolf's first work, by eight years.

According to the British daily The Telegraph on the 21st (local time), Woolf's novel "The Life of Violet," completed in 1907, will be published on the 7th of next month. The manuscript was discovered by Professor Urmila Seshagiri of the University of Tennessee, who studies Woolf's autobiographical essays, during a research visit to an aristocratic mansion near Warminster in southern England. The mansion was home to an aristocratic family who were close to Woolf. Professor Seshagiri explained that she came across the bound typewritten manuscript by chance in the mansion's archives.

The draft, in which Woolf organized her ideas before writing the novel, is currently housed at the New York Public Library in the United States. However, the novel itself had never been found before, and the literary world had assumed that Woolf never completed it and abandoned the project. The exact reason why Woolf did not publish this novel during her lifetime remains unknown.

The novel consists of three comedic short stories featuring a giant woman as the protagonist. Written when Woolf was 25, the novel also includes characters and themes that would later appear in her various novels and essays. In one scene, the protagonist Victoria and her friends remark, "It would be wonderful to have a room of one's own," which is closely related to the theme of her 1929 essay "A Room of One's Own."

Professor Seshagiri commented that "The Life of Violet," with its comedic content, will help change the perception that Woolf only dealt with dark and somber themes, adding, "Woolf's humor sparkles in this work."