Sackville-West vs. Woolf

I am reduced to a thing that wants Virginia.

I composed a beautiful letter to you in the sleepless, nightmare hours of the night, and it has all gone: I just miss you, in a quite simple, desperate, human way. You, with all your undumb letters, would never write so elementary a phrase as that; perhaps you wouldn’t even feel it. And yet I believe you’ll be sensible of a little gap. But you’d clothe it in so exquisite a phrase that it would lose a little of its reality. Whereas with me it is quite stark: I miss you even more than I could have believed, and I was prepared to miss you a good deal. So this letter is really just a squeal of pain.

It is incredible how essential to me you have become. I suppose you are accustomed to people saying these things. Damn you, spoilt creature; I shan’t make you love me any the more by giving myself away like this—but oh my dear, I can’t be clever and standoffish with you: I love you too much for that. Too truly. You have no idea how standoffish I can be with people I don’t love. I have brought it to a fine art. But you have broken down my defenses. And I don’t really resent it.

—Vita Sackville-West, in a letter to Virginia Woolf, 1915

(Source: laphamsquarterly.org)

1. coffee-stoned reblogged this from malevichsquare
2. mrahist liked this
3. whibstap liked this
4. theinfernaldesiremachine reblogged this from malevichsquare
5. nightruler liked this
6. possessedbylight reblogged this from malevichsquare
7. scannedlife liked this
8. francescapalumbo61 reblogged this from malevichsquare
9. francescapalumbo61 reblogged this from malevichsquare
10. pcbutler liked this
11. parasols liked this
12. teenagersonacid reblogged this from thecolonizemarseffort
13. oltha-heri reblogged this from dollsome-does-tumblr
14. lysanderandpherenike reblogged this from malevichsquare
15. lysanderandpherenike liked this
16. apttochange reblogged this from thecolonizemarseffort and added:

    Can I please have this in my life?

17. antholgy liked this
18. relentlessly-restless reblogged this from malevichsquare
19. dustintheink liked this
20. amysilver liked this
21. incomprehensiblelentils liked this
22. dollsome-does-tumblr liked this
23. dollsome-does-tumblr reblogged this from themirrorofsin
24. superficialmycosis liked this
25. themirrorofsin reblogged this from morbidezza
26. escapebutton reblogged this from thecolonizemarseffort
27. wingedbookworm liked this
28. thecolonizemarseffort reblogged this from morbidezza
29. morbidezza reblogged this from sans-merci
30. passthediamonds liked this
31. sans-merci reblogged this from malevichsquare
32. jessfoundwonder reblogged this from malevichsquare
33. jessfoundwonder liked this
34. theunsluttyalleycat liked this
35. mandiewahlers reblogged this from malevichsquare
36. swethadop liked this
37. joshuarobertlong liked this
38. mpjw liked this
39. timeolion liked this
40. boxofoctaves reblogged this from malevichsquare
41. vintageanchor liked this
42. elizabethyalkut liked this
43. poetcael73 liked this
44. jackmarlowe liked this
45. pyramid-point liked this
46. theblackwaterdog reblogged this from aristocracysystem
47. maybeiamtoohollywood reblogged this from come-walk-on-the-wild-side
48. aristocracysystem reblogged this from universal-invariant
49. universal-invariant reblogged this from malevichsquare
50. come-walk-on-the-wild-side reblogged this from stophollytime and added:

    I am reduced to a thing that wants Virginia....I composed a beautiful letter to you in the...

51. Show more notesLoading...