Virginia Stephen at the Dr Williams’s Library

Clara Jones

doi:10.1080/09574042.2016.122715

Virginia Stephen at the Dr Williams’s Library

Clara Jones

English Language & Literature

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

This article considers the implications of Virginia Stephen’s membership of the foremost library of Protestant nonconformity in London—the Dr Williams’s Library. Drawing on research in the library’s archives, the author focuses on the original record of Stephen’s membership in the 1905 ‘Index of Readers’. While paying close attention to the semantic specificities of the record itself, this article also positions Stephen’s individual record in the wider context of the community of readers this index documents. The article explores the degree to which Stephen’s encounter with the predominantly female and scholarly, but also distinctly lower-middle-class and professional readership of the Dr Williams’s Library may have influenced the concerns of her 1909 short story ‘Memoirs of a Novelist’ and her first novel, The Voyage Out.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	125-136
Journal	Women: A Cultural Review
Volume	27
Issue number	2
Early online date	6 Oct 2016
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/09574042.2016.122715
Publication status	Published - 2016

Keywords

Virginia Woolf, class, gender

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10.1080/09574042.2016.122715

Cite this

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title = "Virginia Stephen at the Dr Williams{\textquoteright}s Library",

abstract = "This article considers the implications of Virginia Stephen{\textquoteright}s membership of the foremost library of Protestant nonconformity in London—the Dr Williams{\textquoteright}s Library. Drawing on research in the library{\textquoteright}s archives, the author focuses on the original record of Stephen{\textquoteright}s membership in the 1905 {\textquoteleft}Index of Readers{\textquoteright}. While paying close attention to the semantic specificities of the record itself, this article also positions Stephen{\textquoteright}s individual record in the wider context of the community of readers this index documents. The article explores the degree to which Stephen{\textquoteright}s encounter with the predominantly female and scholarly, but also distinctly lower-middle-class and professional readership of the Dr Williams{\textquoteright}s Library may have influenced the concerns of her 1909 short story {\textquoteleft}Memoirs of a Novelist{\textquoteright} and her first novel, The Voyage Out.",

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AB - This article considers the implications of Virginia Stephen’s membership of the foremost library of Protestant nonconformity in London—the Dr Williams’s Library. Drawing on research in the library’s archives, the author focuses on the original record of Stephen’s membership in the 1905 ‘Index of Readers’. While paying close attention to the semantic specificities of the record itself, this article also positions Stephen’s individual record in the wider context of the community of readers this index documents. The article explores the degree to which Stephen’s encounter with the predominantly female and scholarly, but also distinctly lower-middle-class and professional readership of the Dr Williams’s Library may have influenced the concerns of her 1909 short story ‘Memoirs of a Novelist’ and her first novel, The Voyage Out.

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Virginia Stephen at the Dr Williams’s Library

Abstract

Keywords

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