The Life of Violet

by Virginia Woolf

It’s not often that you can announce a new book by a great modernist writer, but in October 2025, three stories by Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) hit the shelves. Previously known as the ‘Friendships Gallery’, the three interrelated stories comprise a mock-biography of Violet Dickinson, a friend of Woolf’s, that had previously been dismissed as a bit of fun for family and friends. However, Urmila Seshagiri, a professor of English at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, found a more polished draft of the stories in Longleat House, home of the Marquess of Bath, where they had lain archived for 80 years.