Item 87 - Copy letter from Virginia Woolf to R.C. Trevelyan

1 item: typed copy letter

Hogarth House, Paradise Road, Richmond, Surrey. - Thanks Bob for writing; agrees with most of his criticism of "Jacob's Room". The 'effort of breaking with strict representation is very unsettling' and many things were not as 'controlled' as they ought to have been; also expects it is true that the 'characters remain shadowy for the most part', though here 'the method was not so much at fault as [her] ignorance of how to use it psychologically'. Finds it difficult to explain this in writing and hopes they will see Bob. Apologises for 'obscurity' if this belonged to the sentences and 'not only the approaches, and transitions and situations generally'; thinks that 'needless difficulty' in writing has no excuse. Very glad that Bob liked much of the book and thinks it a 'fruitful experiment'; this is an encouragement to go on, as she wishes. Hopes he will soon visit and they can discuss more. Ashamed to send this letter, which she has had little time for, but was 'so pleased' with Bob's that she wanted to answer it. Leonard sends love; after getting through the [general] election [standing unsuccessfully as the Labour candidate for the Combined English Universities], he now has to do jury service at the Old Bailey; they are afraid it is the 'Ilford murder case' [the murder of Percy Thompson, for which Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters were convicted and executed].