This is a biography of Virginia Woolf told from her early years to about age 40. It focusses on her years leading up to meeting Leonard Woolf and how she develops her writing habits. And also how her family and family tragedies fed into her psyche and the way they influence her future stories. I really liked this book. I am a fan of Woolf and enjoy her writing - I remember first reading Mrs Dalloway and knowing I'd found someone special to spend a lifetime reading and rereading. Its nice to understand more about her - I didn't know about her links to St Ives which is a place I've visited several times and love.

Some quotes:-

"I write all the morning, walk all the afternoon, and read and write and look out of the window the rest of the time."

"Oh dear, what a lot I've got to read! The entire works of Mr James Joyce, Wyndham Lewis, Ezra Pound, so as to compare them with the entire works of Dickens and Mrs Gaskell; beside that George Eliot; and finally Hardy."

She wasn't just reading the classics but anything she found in her father's library. She also enjoyed "trivial, ephemeral books."

Ms Brackenbury explains how the young Virginia recognised the gap between the person who served tea to her father and the person who wrote in her room. In this gap was freedom. Freedom "to change gender, to time travel, to be outrageous and to imagine widely. It was the space that eventually gave birth to Orlando." Ms Brackenbury is obviously a fan of Woolf and as an experienced writer is well able to develop the character of Woolf through her letters, journals, and writings but also there is a large part of Brackenbury herself here and I like that. Its like discussing Woolf with a friend.

Recommended if you like Virginia Woolf and want to know more about her formative years.

I was given a copy of this book by Netgalley in return for an honest review.

The Miss Stephen referred to in the title, Miss Stephen's Apprenticeship, is Virginia Woolf! Rosaline Brackenbury has produced an biography of the first 40 years of Virginia Woolf's life which should appeal to both academics and aspiring writers. Brackenbury has, seemingly, read everything either written by, or about, Virginia Woolf, including her diaries, letters, book reviews, editorials, short stories and novels. In this book, Brackenbury analyzes Virginia's self-doubts and psychological struggles along with the events happening in her life to determine how she became the genius, accomplished writer with whom we are familiar.

Recommended reading for dedicated fans or scholars of Virginia Woolf.

This little book was a great fan for readers or writers. It summarizes Virginia Woolf's life before her marriage to Leonard Woolf, her self education to become the wonderful and classic writer she has become, and how certain characters from her novels were reflections of what had occurred in her own life. I really enjoyed the snippets from Virginia's letters and learning more about Virginia than what I had learned previously from Vanessa and Her Sister by Priya Parmar. I'm not sure that people who know a lot about Virginia will find something new in this novel or not since I am not in the camp :)

I've been fascinated by Virginia Woolf since my teens, when I first read Mrs Dalloway and it utterly absorbed me. In the years since, I've studied her, read her and read about her, so I was keen to see what the author had to add to my existing knowledge. The honest answer? Not much. In her defence, this is a subject matter not entirely short of material and scholars to explore it, so it was always going to be hard to find something new to say. This reads like a cross between a love letter and a thesis. It's well written and engaging and if you're new to.Woolf I think it would be a nice, easy way to approach any reading about her.