“Suicidal Mania” and Flawed Psychobiography: Two Discussions of Virginia Woolf

Abstract

The first discussion concerns Virginia Woolf's attempted suicide in September 1913 and her recuperation from the attack of mental illness that provoked it. The main focus is on the interest and advice of Roger Fry, who was closely involved with Virginia's sister, Vanessa Bell, and whose wife, the artist Helen Fry, had a long history of mental illness that invites comparison and contrast with that of Virginia. When Virginia was convalescing, and a new nurse was required for her, Roger approached the medical superintendent of the hospital in which Helen was a patient. The letters exchanged between the two are made known for the first time. The second discussion concerns Virginia's and Leonard Woolf's visit to Greece with Roger and his sister Margery Fry in 1932, and specifically a photograph taken while the party was in Athens. The recent contention of Maggie Humm that the common error of identifying the location as the Acropolis originated with Virginia, and that her alleged misidentification is psychobiographically significant, is refuted.