ABSTRACT
As a child in London and in Cornwall, Woolf read voraciously, studied languages, and wrote articles for a weekly family newspaper. When her mother died of influenza in 1895, it was, as Woolf later remarked, "the greatest disaster that could happen," and a few months later Woolf had her first breakdown, hearing voices, avoiding food, and suffering from the physical symptoms of extreme anxiety. Her grief over her mother's loss may have been exacerbated by the sexual fondlings of her half-brother, George Duckworth, which certainly upset her during her adolescence and may have contributed to her lifelong inability to respond sexually to men.
