Hogarth Press’ Two Stories: Uncertainty and…more by Ethan N.

When I visited the Rare Books collection, I got the privilege of seeing Hogarth Press’ first publication Two Stories, containing Virginia Woolf’s “The Mark on the Wall” and Leonard Woolf’s “Three Jews”, published as a first edition in 1917. For such an important work, it was very unassuming. The cover was a simple red pattern, with the only illustrations a handful of woodcut images printed on pages in a small, loosely bound book. As the first publication from Hogarth Press, it looks the part of a book produced by a small, new publisher, which is in stark contrast to how we view Hogarth Press (and specifically, Virginia Woolf) today. Thinking about how this was the first introduction to Woolf definitely gives some perspective to the story, as she tries to find her way in the literary world and appeal to an audience that might have been accustomed to more objective writing. The illustrations, simple woodcut images, provide some visual context that adds an extra dimension to the work. Note that the illustrations were done by Dora Carrington, an artist not associated with the Woolfs (or Leonora Carrington for that matter), despite Virginia’s sister (Vanessa Bell) being an artist herself.

In “The Mark on the Wall”, a nameless narrator sits by the fire and looks up to see a small, mysterious mark on the wall. The mark becomes the catalyst for several pages of stream-of-consciousness style writing that covers themes of religion, humanity, and more. The first page, with the dog and narrator facing the fire, helps to create a sense of contentment, before the burning question of the mark on the wall interrupts. On the final page is the infamous snail illustrated; actually seeing an image of the mark on the wall removes some of the mystery that the book imparts for me, considering how the constant theme of uncertainty in the work calls into question even the identity of the mark on the wall. However, seeing the mark illustrated does emphasize that the grand musings about life were all because of something as simple as a snail. The fact that this revelation could be ruined by an antsy reader looking ahead is also unique to the physical copy.

“Three Jews” is the first work in the book, followed by “The Mark on the Wall”. “Three Jews” is a lesser known work by Leonard Woolf, Virginia Woolf’s husband, that shares elements of subjectivity with “The Mark on the Wall”. There is also some academic conversation on Virginia Woolf’s views of Judaism and how it factored into her marriage, especially since “Three Jews” seems to address ideas of estrangement in the Jewish community (Schröder). Pairing these stories together helps emphasize themes of change and uncertainty present in both works, while also providing some context to V. Woolf’s personal life as Leonard’s work seems to contain commentary on their relationship (specifically, as Virginia was agnostic/atheist and Leonard was Jewish).

As this work was a first edition, edited by Woolf herself, “The Mark on the Wall” is filled with marks from Virginia Woolf. Compared to the version we read, Woolf made numerous edits of grammar and syntax, with an especially high number of ellipses added, in addition to some large-scale revisions. The elimination of words like “for” (in the very last line) and the inclusion of so many ellipses adds a sense of uncertainty and ambiguity in the work that is an important contributor to the work and is a hallmark of many modernist works from Woolf. In addition, the changes help highlight sudden shifts from the narrator’s thoughts back to the mark on the wall. There are also larger passages eliminated in the final edition still present in the first edition; one such example is on page 22, starting at “But I know a house-keeper…”. This passage is a clear example of stream of consciousness, with the narrator’s mind bouncing back and forth from a house-keeper to the mark and more until she is finally drawn back to the mark (the final edition starts again at “The tree outside…” (23)). Eliminating passages like these may have been done to avoid excessive tangents but does seem slightly strange given the prevalence of stream of conscious narration in Woolf’s works. There is something to be said about the role of gender in the elimination of this passage as well. The narrator’s gender is undetermined and, given that a male character comes in to interrupt the narrator’s thoughts near the end of the story, the elimination of a passage about a female character could have been done to make the commentary on gender more ambiguous. Woolf was, along with Katherine Mansfield, one of the only prominent female writers of the modernist period, and her identity as a woman certainly influenced the way her works were received. Taking out a passage so focused on a female character is very likely related to the role of gender in the work, although the exact reasoning is heavily debated. Regardless, it provides a window into what Woolf’s intended in “The Mark on the Wall”.

Schröder, Leena Kore. “Tales of Abjection and Miscegenation: Virginia Woolf’s and Leonard Woolf’s ‘Jewish’ Stories.” Twentieth Century Literature, vol. 49, no. 3, 2003, pp. 298–327. JSTOR, Accessed 8 Nov. 2020.

Passage: But, I know a house-keeper, a woman with the profile of a police-man, those little round buttons marked even upon the edge of her shadow, a woman with a broom in her hand, a thumb on picture frames, an eye under beds and she talks always of art. She is coming nearer and nearer; and now, pointing to certain spots of yellow rust on the fender, she becomes so menacing that to oust her, I shall have to end her by taking action: I shall have to get up and see for myself what that mark-

But no. I refuse to be beaten. I will not move. I will not recognize her. See, she fades already. I am very nearly rid of her and her insinuations, which I can her quite distinctly. Yet she has about her the pathos of all people  who wish to compromise. And why should I resent the fact that she has a few books in her house, a picture or two? But what I really resent is that she resents me–life being an affair of attack and defence after all. Another time I will have it out with her, not now. She must go now.

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