Gardens in the Work of Virginia Woolf

Karina Jakubowicz is an adjunct lecturer at Fordham University New York and Florida State University. She is a graduate of University College London, Clare College Cambridge, and Trinity College Dublin. She was the recipient of an academic scholarship from Trinity College Dublin and was the winner of the 2017 Katherine Mansfield essay prize. Her numerous publications concern the work of 20th century writers and focus primarily on the role of nature and space in their work. She also creates and produces the Virginia Woolf Podcast.

I learned a great deal from this brilliantly observed investigation of gardens as place, metaphor, inspiration, memorial, origin and more across Woolf’s oeuvre. From the remarkable persistence of Kew Gardens to Woolf’s queering of literary historical metaphors, Jakubowicz’s subtle and well-informed close readings are a real treasure.

• List of FiguresAcknowledgementsAbbreviationsIntroduction1. ‘Life in a garden’: Landscapes of Female Development in The Voyage Out2. ‘Dangerous ground’: The Origins of ‘Kew Gardens’3. ‘Not in so many words': Cut Flowers and Commemoration in Mrs Dalloway4. Moving the Tree: Painting the Artist’s Garden in To the Lighthouse5. ‘Stuck together with faded leaves': Growing Gardens in The Waves6. ‘A garden full of lust and bees': Queering Woolf’s Literary GardensConclusionBibliographyIndex