Virginia Woolf began her writing career with a purpose: a self-conscious evolution of the novel. She pioneered stream of consciousness as a narrative device and was one of the most influential authors of the 20th century. Home-schooled in Victorian literature and the English classics, she was part of an affluent family of eight, including Vanessa Bell the modernist painter. When she attended the Ladies’ Department of King’s College London she joined with reformers of the women’s rights movement and higher education for women.
