Giovanna Spendel Book order (chronological)

Virginia Woolf's only autobiographical writing is to be found in this collection of five unpublished pieces. Readers will be struck by the extent to which she drew on these early experiences for her novels, as she tells how she exorcised the obsessive presence of her mother by writing To the Lighthouse.

Features a wealthy Moscow surgeon Filip Preobrazhensky who implants the pituitary gland and testicles of a drunken petty criminal into the body of a stray dog. As the dog slowly transforms into a man, and man into a slovenly, lecherous government official, the doctor's life descends into chaos.