A MOMENT'S LIBERTY: The Shorter Diary

A tastefully abridged edition of the five volumes of Woolf's Diary (1977-1984). Featuring a new introduction by Woolf's nephew Quentin Bell, and edited by Quentin's wife, Anne, who edited the five-volume set, the abridgement provides an intimate record of Woolf's life from 1915 to 1941. The earliest entries focus mostly on social and domestic matters (1915: ""Sunday 31 January: O dear! We quarrelled for almost all the morning! and it was a lovely morning, and now gone to Hades for ever . . .I explode; and L. smoulders""), but as the years fly by (each is introduced with a concise summary by Anne Bell), the diary opens up to comment on literature, current events, and the rigors of celebrity (1932: ""Thursday 21 July: Oh but I'm so tired--I sometimes think people can't know what they do to me when they ask me to 'see' them: how they hold me in the scorching light: how I dry and shrivel. . .""). Woolf's great talent shimmers across every page here; a marvelous volume.