Avoidance.

A hundred years ago, Virginia Woolf published her second most famous essay, “On Being Ill.” Written during a prolonged bout of illness the previous fall, Woolf asked why sickness—an unavoidable feature of human experience—is represented so rarely and inadequately in literature.… pic.twitter.com/VvJ6Idm7dJ

— The New Yorker (@NewYorker) October 6, 2026

At no point in the essay does Woolf specifically refer to her own body, her own illness, or to any particular person’s experience of ill health, even as she calls for “epic poems to typhoid; odes to pneumonia, lyrics to toothache.” The term “autoimmune” hadn’t yet come into currency, but the self-thwarting character of “On Being Ill” suggests a similar diagnosis;…
…In recent decades, narratives of illness have become more frequent, as the omertà around the body, particularly the once extra-unmentionable female body, has faded….”

Why Is Illness So Hard to Write About? By Hermione Hoby

Virginia Woolf’s essays are often overlooked and remain unexplored by many readers. She covered a wide range of topics – from feminism to life in London and everything in between. Woolf’s style – her views – her experiences make for fascinating reads. Her novels are distinctive and carry weight.

The collection of essays above features ” On Being Ill” in which Woolf discusses how the English language really doesn’t ‘bend’ to allow for literary creativity in describing illness. She wrote about Proust, Hemingway, and Lawrence, discussing not just the approach to illness in their writing, but also how writing about the body in general is approached in literature.