Virginia left her last letter (dated 28 March 1941) on the writing block in her garden lodge. About 11.30am she walked the half mile to the River Ouse, filled her pockets with stones, and threw herself into the water. Her body was not found until 18 April, when some children discovered it a short way downstream. She was cremated at Brighton on 21 April with only Leonard present, and her ashes were buried under the great elm tree at Monk's House with the penultimate words of The Waves as her epitaph: 'Against you I will fling myself, unvanquished and unyielding, O Death!'
Final page, Selected Letters, Virginia Woolf.
2 comments:
I DO like the epitaph. Very ballsy.
Long Overdue
Yes. I wonder how Leonard, sad, broken hearted, managed to pick these particular words, out of the thousands she had written...I think they're perfect.
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