John Steinbeck in 1939 Born

Sexual abuse[edit]

Much has been made of Virginia's statements that she was continually sexually abused during the whole time that she lived at 22 Hyde Park Gate, as a possible cause of her mental health issues,^[136][137] although there are likely to be a number of contributing factors. She states that she first remembers being molested by Gerald Duckworth when she was six years old. It has been suggested that this led to a lifetime of sexual fear and resistance to masculine authority.^[3] Against a background of over-committed and distant parents, suggestions that this was a dysfunctional family must be evaluated. These include evidence of sexual abuse of the Stephen girls by their older Duckworth stepbrothers, and by their cousin, James Kenneth Stephen (1859–1892), at least of Stella Duckworth.^[u] Laura is also thought to have been abused.^[138] The most graphic account is by Louise DeSalvo,^[139] but other authors and reviewers have been more cautious.^[140][141] Lee states that, "The evidence is strong enough, and yet ambiguous enough, to open the way for conflicting psychobiographical interpretations that draw quite different shapes of Virginia Woolf's interior life".^[142]