Children Quote by Jane Goldman
““The daughter of the literary biographer Leslie Stephen, and close friend of the innovative biographer of the Victorians, Lytton Strachey, Woolf herself put forward, in ‘The New Biography’ (1927) (reviewing work by another biographer acquaintance, Harold Nicolson), her own memorable theory of biography, encapsulated in her phrase ‘granite and rainbow’. ‘Truth’ she envisions ‘as something of granite-like solidity’, and ‘personality as something of rainbow-like intangibility’, and ‘the aim of biography’, she proposes, ‘is to weld these two into one seamless whole’ (E4 473). The following short biographical account ofWoolf will attempt to keep to the basic granitelike facts that Woolf novices need to know, while also occasionally attending in brief to the more elusive, but equally relevant, matter of rainbow-like personality.””
About This Quote
Source Essay: The New Biography, 1927
Woolf argues biography should combine solid factual detail with vivid, intangible personality to create a unified portrait.
In simple terms: Combine facts and personality in biography.
Key Takeaway
Blend truth and character.
Themes
biography
literature
truth
personality
methodology
Mood
reflective
analytical
thoughtful
Type
analytical
philosophical
When to use this quote
- writing a biography
- teaching literature
- historical research
- creative nonfiction
- literary criticism
Key Concepts
granite metaphor
rainbow metaphor
integrative approach
Questions to Reflect On
- How can a biographer maintain factual accuracy while capturing a subject’s essence?
- What risks arise when personality overshadows facts?
A Different Perspective
Balancing objectivity and subjectivity can be difficult.
