Gardens in the work of Virginia Woolf

This thesis constitutes the first major study of gardens in the work of the writer, Virginia Woolf. Using a wide range of published and unpublished sources, it considers how this space impacted on her plot, style, form and the presentation of certain themes. It focuses in particular on four of Woolf’s works, The Voyage Out (1915), ‘Kew Gardens’ (1919), Mrs Dalloway (1925) and Between the Acts (1941). By analysing texts that span the length of Woolf’s career, this research also charts her development as a writer in relation to her use of space and landscape. Woolf’s work has already been read within the context of urban locations, and more recently critics have analysed her work in relation to rural environments, but this research attempts to bypass this dichotomy by focusing on a location that exists across urban and rural spheres. In doing so, it generates an innovative perspective on space in Woolf’s writing, one that explores a location not normally associated with literary modernism.