Today’s Google Doodle is an intricately drawn portrait of one of the most iconic and foremost female novelists of the 20th century.
Virginia Woolf was a pioneering English writer in the stream-of-conscious narrative method and a feminist icon.
Her most critically acclaimed novels such as Mrs Dalloway and To The Lighthouse have inspired generations of novelists, playwrights and readers.
Born on January 25, 1882 in the London borough of Kensington, Woolf spent most of her life homeschooled in classic English and Victorian literature.
She began writing professionally in 1900 and soon became a central figure in a highly influential group of writers, philosophers and intellectuals known as the Bloomsbury Group.
Despite growing up in London, many of her works were inspired by fond childhood memories outside of the capital.
Her 1927 novel, To The Lighthouse, was directly inspired by childhood visits to the Cornish coast.
In 1998, To The Lighthouse was named the No.15 on the Modern Library’s list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th Century.
In 1921, Woolf explained how her memories played into her creative process and her stream-of-conscious writing
She said: “Why am I so incredibly and incurably romantic about Cornwall?
“One’s past, I suppose; I see children running in the garden … The sound of the sea at night … almost forty years of life, all built on that, permeated by that: so much I could never explain.”
Woolf’s works suffered a decline in popularity post-World War Two but a 1970s resurgence in the feminist movement, saw countless readers rediscover her books.
Woolf struggled with mental illness through much of her life, undoubtedly exacerbated by the death of her father in 1904.
After falling into a deep depression, Woolf took her own life at the age of 59 on March 28, 1941.
To date, her most beloved books include Mrs Dalloway (1925), Orlando (1928), A Room of One’s Own (1929), To the Lighthouse (1927), The Waves (1931) and Between the Acts (1941).
In 2015, the novelist was portrayed by Lydia Leonard and Catherine McCormack in the BBC’s short drama series Life in Squares.
Nicole Kidman also portrayed Woolf in the 2002 film The Hours, for which she received an Academy Award for Best Actress.