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The Essays #1
The Essays of Virginia Woolf: Volume 1, 1904–1912
Nonfiction pieces dating from 1904, when she was twenty-three, to 1912, the year of her marriage to Leonard Woolf. "These are polished works of literary journalism-shrewd, deft, inquisitive, graceful, and often sparkling" (Library Journal). Edited and with an Introduction by Andrew McNeillie; Index.
411 pages, Hardcover
First published November 17, 1986
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About the author
Virginia Woolf
1,829 books28.7k followers(Adeline) Virginia Woolf was an English novelist and essayist regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century.
During the interwar period, Woolf was a significant figure in London literary society and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Her most famous works include the novels Mrs. Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), and Orlando (1928), and the book-length essay A Room of One's Own (1929) with its famous dictum, "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."
During the interwar period, Woolf was a significant figure in London literary society and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Her most famous works include the novels Mrs. Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), and Orlando (1928), and the book-length essay A Room of One's Own (1929) with its famous dictum, "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
April 27, 2019
Unlike her fiction that is superb and beyond any limits, the essays by Woolf are limited in theme and nature. She has written about poets, poetry, drama, dramatists, writers and writings. However, she becomes personal (which she is entitled to be) and limited to finding the women Donne might have loved and hated (metaphorically used to tell what she might be doing in her essays).
June 2, 2015
LOVE HER ESSAYS!!! Virginia Woolf published many essays throughout her lifetime. After her death, her husband, Leonard Woolf, collected all her published essays and put them into four uniform volumes, this being Volume One. In each of these essays, Mr. Woolf believes, have stood the test of time and none had fallen below the standard. Volumes 1 and 2 deal with literary and critical issues as well as integrity and precision. Volume 3 and 4 are biographical.
Charlotte & Emily Bronte -- “Wuthering Heights is a more difficult book to understand than Charlotte wrote she said with eloquence and splendor and passion “I love”, “I hate”, “I suffer”. Her own experience, though more intense, is on a level with our own. But there is no ”I” in Wuthering Heights. There are no governess. There are no employees. There is love, but it is not the love of men and women. Emily was inspired by some more general conception. The impulse which urged her to create was not her own suffering or her own injuries. She looked out upon a world cleft into gigantic disorder and felt within her the power to unite it in a book. That gigantic ambition is to be felt throughout the novel -- a struggle, half thwarted but of superb conviction, to say something through the mouths of her characters which is not merely “I love” or “I hate”, but “we, the whole human race” and “you, the eternal powers . . .” The sentence remains unfinished. It is not strange that it should be so; rather it is astonishing that she can make us feel what she had it in her to say at all. . . Emily had to face the fact of other existences, grapple with the mechanism of external things, build up, in recognizable shapes . . . Can there be truth or insight in men and women who so little resemble what we have seen ourselves? But even as we ask it, we see in Heathcliff that he is impossible, but nevertheless no boy in literature has a more vivid existence than his; so it is with the two Catherines; never could women feel as they do or act in their manner. Yet they are the most lovable women in English fiction. It is as if Emily could tear up all that we know human beings by, and fill these unrecognizable transparencies with such a gust of life that they transcend reality. Hers, then, is the rarest of all powers. SHe could free life from its dependence on facts; with a few touches indicate the spirit of a face so that it needs no body; by speaking of the moor make the wind blow and the thunder roar.”
Elizabeth Barrett Browning -- “Aurora Leigh, the novel poem, is a masterpiece in embryo; a work whose genius floats diffused and fluctuating in some pre-natal stage waiting the final stroke of creative power to bring it into being”. . . “Mrs. Browning meant to give us a sense of life in general, of people who are unmistakably Victorian, wrestling with the problems of their own time, all brightened, intensified and compacted by the fire of poetry, she succeeded.”
The Russian Point of View -- “Tchekov is aware of the evils and injustices of the social state; the condition of the peasants appals him, but the reformer’s zeal is not his -- The mind interests him enormously; he is a most subtle and delicate analyst of human relations. But again, no; the end is not there. He is primarily interested not in the soul’s relations with other souls, but with the souls relation to goodness? In these stories he is always showing us some affection, pose, insincerity. The soul is ill; the soul is cured; the soul is not cured. Those are the emphatic points in his stories.”
The Russian Point of View -- “Turgenev, the novelist, must observe everything exactly, in himself and in others. The other quality that Turgenev possesses in so great a degree is the rare gift of symmetry, of balance. He gives us, in comparison with other novelists, a generalized and harmonized picture of life. . . But Turgenev did not see his books as a succession of events; he saw them as a succession of emotions radiating from some character at the centre.”
There are more: Defoe, Sir Walter Scott, Jane Austen, George Eliot, Lewis Carroll, Thomas Hardy, Henry James, Joseph Conrad, E.M. Forster, D. H. Lawrence, George Moore, Walter Raleigh; Not knowing Greek; The Faery Queen, David Copperfield, and much more. EXCELLENT!!
Charlotte & Emily Bronte -- “Wuthering Heights is a more difficult book to understand than Charlotte wrote she said with eloquence and splendor and passion “I love”, “I hate”, “I suffer”. Her own experience, though more intense, is on a level with our own. But there is no ”I” in Wuthering Heights. There are no governess. There are no employees. There is love, but it is not the love of men and women. Emily was inspired by some more general conception. The impulse which urged her to create was not her own suffering or her own injuries. She looked out upon a world cleft into gigantic disorder and felt within her the power to unite it in a book. That gigantic ambition is to be felt throughout the novel -- a struggle, half thwarted but of superb conviction, to say something through the mouths of her characters which is not merely “I love” or “I hate”, but “we, the whole human race” and “you, the eternal powers . . .” The sentence remains unfinished. It is not strange that it should be so; rather it is astonishing that she can make us feel what she had it in her to say at all. . . Emily had to face the fact of other existences, grapple with the mechanism of external things, build up, in recognizable shapes . . . Can there be truth or insight in men and women who so little resemble what we have seen ourselves? But even as we ask it, we see in Heathcliff that he is impossible, but nevertheless no boy in literature has a more vivid existence than his; so it is with the two Catherines; never could women feel as they do or act in their manner. Yet they are the most lovable women in English fiction. It is as if Emily could tear up all that we know human beings by, and fill these unrecognizable transparencies with such a gust of life that they transcend reality. Hers, then, is the rarest of all powers. SHe could free life from its dependence on facts; with a few touches indicate the spirit of a face so that it needs no body; by speaking of the moor make the wind blow and the thunder roar.”
Elizabeth Barrett Browning -- “Aurora Leigh, the novel poem, is a masterpiece in embryo; a work whose genius floats diffused and fluctuating in some pre-natal stage waiting the final stroke of creative power to bring it into being”. . . “Mrs. Browning meant to give us a sense of life in general, of people who are unmistakably Victorian, wrestling with the problems of their own time, all brightened, intensified and compacted by the fire of poetry, she succeeded.”
The Russian Point of View -- “Tchekov is aware of the evils and injustices of the social state; the condition of the peasants appals him, but the reformer’s zeal is not his -- The mind interests him enormously; he is a most subtle and delicate analyst of human relations. But again, no; the end is not there. He is primarily interested not in the soul’s relations with other souls, but with the souls relation to goodness? In these stories he is always showing us some affection, pose, insincerity. The soul is ill; the soul is cured; the soul is not cured. Those are the emphatic points in his stories.”
The Russian Point of View -- “Turgenev, the novelist, must observe everything exactly, in himself and in others. The other quality that Turgenev possesses in so great a degree is the rare gift of symmetry, of balance. He gives us, in comparison with other novelists, a generalized and harmonized picture of life. . . But Turgenev did not see his books as a succession of events; he saw them as a succession of emotions radiating from some character at the centre.”
There are more: Defoe, Sir Walter Scott, Jane Austen, George Eliot, Lewis Carroll, Thomas Hardy, Henry James, Joseph Conrad, E.M. Forster, D. H. Lawrence, George Moore, Walter Raleigh; Not knowing Greek; The Faery Queen, David Copperfield, and much more. EXCELLENT!!
April 22, 2020
To say that Virginia Woolf was a prolific writer is an understatement. The public is lucky to have her novels, her diaries, her letters, and her essays.
This is the first volume of her essays1904-1912, and it definitely does not disappoint.
My favorites are her review of Churchill and Edith Warton's 'The House of Mirth' and E.M. Forsters, 'A Room With a View'.
To mention all the wonderful essays contained in this book would be to mention the entire book.
Virginia Woolf was an amazing talent that left this world to soon and we are deprived of the work she could have done.
I am so glad that I have collected all her novels and stories as well as all her other writings. She is one of my favorites writers and I have loved making my way through these essays.
This is the first volume of her essays1904-1912, and it definitely does not disappoint.
My favorites are her review of Churchill and Edith Warton's 'The House of Mirth' and E.M. Forsters, 'A Room With a View'.
To mention all the wonderful essays contained in this book would be to mention the entire book.
Virginia Woolf was an amazing talent that left this world to soon and we are deprived of the work she could have done.
I am so glad that I have collected all her novels and stories as well as all her other writings. She is one of my favorites writers and I have loved making my way through these essays.
July 7, 2018
4.5/5
A writer is a writer from [their] cradle; in [their] dealings with the world, in [their] affections, in [their] attitude to the thousand small things that happen between dawn and sunset, [they] show[] the same point of view as that which [they] elaborate[] afterwards with a pen in [their] hand. It is more fragmentary and incoherent, but it is also more intense.This is the ninth book of Woolf I've read to conclusion. I've another five or six on my shelves, judging by the intro and backflap, I could have a further 17 to indulge in , a borderline obscene amount of material which I may very well indulge in, depending on how my tastes strengthen or flag in the coming years. While I'm pretty sure I only purchased this only because it was a Woolf I hadn't yet encountered, I surprisingly found it more of a pleasure than, say, Jacob's Room, or Lee's titular biography. I've engaged with essays before, but when the writing is Woolf's and the perspective is focused on a timeline when certain names surface that, near forgotten today, have at that time not yet been artificially and violently suppressed, it is oftentimes a gratifying journey. Surprisingly enjoyable as well was Woolf's commentary on the US in various articles, as I can't recall ever having had her biting wit and refreshingly original gaze turned in my country's direction. None of her observations are as useful as the ones I prefer to imbibe these days, but the work Woolf did, if unconsciously, in bringing certain women to a new light, in addition to generally good viewpoints on more rhapsodized upon males, made for a veritably worthwhile reading.
There are many other illustrations of the same genius for organisation, and of the peculiar nature of American charity, which is not satisfied with relieving suffering, but must find out and, if possible, eliminate the cause of it.Elizabeth Robins, Vernon Lee, and Margaret Cavendish, here introduced as Margaret Lucas, "not happy in Court[,] often lost in thought[:] Have snails got teeth? Do hogs have the measles? Why do dogs that rejoice swing their tails? It was a bad habit in the eyes of the French ladies." One I've read, one I have down as to read, and one I've heard much of in reference to the owner of the title of the first science fiction writer and The Blazing World as the first science fiction work (in English, at any rate). The first two aren't as auspicious as the last, but all deserve to be far better known than they currently are, involved as these women were in politics, queerness, philosophy, artistic criticism, and a host of other creative concerns long before the mainstream permitted such demographically involved names to arise in fields outside the home. It warms the cockles of my hear that Woolf found Robins in particular of such quality, not in any undiscriminating sense, but in a way that acknowledged the important work Robins had to do, and how it, despite conformist pretenses, could be melded with story and result in what could well be called a good piece of literature. Less of what I know of Lee shines through Woolf's essay, but Woolf does have a measure of praise for this writer as well, enough for the average reader to substantiate further interest. There were many other essays, of course, and some have the kind of choice bits of writing that, ironically, would apply to Woolf once she had expanded her bibliography to its fullest length, but these pieces of solidarity are what shown out to me among the Gissing and H. James and Wordsworth. These are three out of a good seventy or eighty pieces, of which I picked up intriguing glimpses of "street" music, Wagner, women translating 17th c. German nonfiction, female actor's memoirs, old names out of a GRE English Subject Test study manual, new names that, not always unjustly, lost the battle against time, and other instances of a broad selection within a very narrow early 20th Anglo point of view. It was hard going at times, but I found enough to merit acquiring Essays Vol 2 should I ever come across it.
Her head was conquered, and that...was the only way to her heart.There have been times when I've thought that I'd moved past my enamorment with Woolf and would leave her, much as I've left many a TV series or fandom behind as a period which did me more good than harm but has overtipped the scales in the long run. I wouldn't be stocking up on the other 17 works this book mentions anytime soon, but it will be a singular pleasure to track Woolf through the years of grappling with critique of various cultural edifices and distinguished humans, especially when she comes across those worthy women whom I've previously devoted some time to unburying. I'm sure there are may more, as neither A Room of One's Own nor Three Guineas fell from the sky.
They are only novels. It seems that there is genuine cause for shuddering when one's work takes this form. Dead leaves cannot be more brittle or more worthless than things faintly imagined — and that the fruit of one's life should be twelve volumes of dead leaves! We have one moment of such panic before the novels of [Virginia Woolf], and then we rise again. Not in our time will they be found worthless.
December 19, 2024
This volume of essays consists of book reviews and analyses of other writers. If you're not already a Woolf fan, there is probably little point in hearing her individual opinions on other books. If you are already a Woolf fan, you'll have a wonderful time with it. Her essay-writing voice is completely different than her novels. It feels like you're just having a conversation with her about books and getting to know her in the process. Her sheer delight in language and in reading fills every page. When she's discussing an author you don't know, you get to enjoy her writing and gain an understanding of her general views on literature. If you do know the author, it's even better, though I didn't always agree with her opinions.
The traits she admires most in other authors are often those that are also easily identifiable in her own work: an interest in character and beautiful language over plot or purpose, the belief that experimental writing can be valuable even if it fails, that the form that our writing takes influences what can be said with it. Yet, Woolf is also capable of praising authors that are vastly different from her. She was a generous reader looking for the best in everything she read and trying to throw herself headlong into each author's point of view before judging them.
I was surprised to learn that Woolf largely believed in interpreting works of literature through the biography and times of the author. I'm largely in the historicist camp too, but it seems that most writers like to deny that their personal life influences their works. Not so with Virginia. Again and again, she discusses how class, gender, nationality, and the time in which a person lived influenced their particular perspective on the world and therefore their writing. I found many of her passages on this topic moving and eloquent. She felt herself part of a web of writers and readers across generations who were having a conversation with each other. Each generation inevitably reads a text differently, she asserts, but that's not something to mourn. Still, at times there's an almost determinist edge to the argument, that a writer can't escape their social position and see the world through another's eyes. Woolf also believed in fixed national characters in a way that I found cringey, and she certainly viewed some groups of people and times as "civilized" and some as "savages"--not surprising, given the times in which she lived, but disappointing nevertheless.
Still, overall, I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to get to know Virginia Woolf better as a person.
The traits she admires most in other authors are often those that are also easily identifiable in her own work: an interest in character and beautiful language over plot or purpose, the belief that experimental writing can be valuable even if it fails, that the form that our writing takes influences what can be said with it. Yet, Woolf is also capable of praising authors that are vastly different from her. She was a generous reader looking for the best in everything she read and trying to throw herself headlong into each author's point of view before judging them.
I was surprised to learn that Woolf largely believed in interpreting works of literature through the biography and times of the author. I'm largely in the historicist camp too, but it seems that most writers like to deny that their personal life influences their works. Not so with Virginia. Again and again, she discusses how class, gender, nationality, and the time in which a person lived influenced their particular perspective on the world and therefore their writing. I found many of her passages on this topic moving and eloquent. She felt herself part of a web of writers and readers across generations who were having a conversation with each other. Each generation inevitably reads a text differently, she asserts, but that's not something to mourn. Still, at times there's an almost determinist edge to the argument, that a writer can't escape their social position and see the world through another's eyes. Woolf also believed in fixed national characters in a way that I found cringey, and she certainly viewed some groups of people and times as "civilized" and some as "savages"--not surprising, given the times in which she lived, but disappointing nevertheless.
Still, overall, I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to get to know Virginia Woolf better as a person.
July 29, 2021
Jeg er blitt Woolf-fan denne sommeren, juli 2021, etter å ha lest meg gjennom fire av hennes bøker på vår tjømeske strømløse ø (noen i vår hytte, andre i de nærskylde umråde). Jeg synes hun er i den litterære verdensklasse. Jeg er i a room of my own, i selskap med en lynende begavet og klok person.
Hun burde fått en Nobel -- og det ville hun kanskje fått, om hun ikke hadde forlatt oss, så tragisk og så tidlig, i 1941.
Riktignok har jeg ikke lest akkurat denne Volume 1, som er den jeg finner i goodreads anglodominante arkiver, men en norsk utgave med kansje 20-25 essays og artikler, oversatt av Merethe Alfsen. Jeg slukte dem alle, med interesse, oppmerksomhet, og beundring. Ikke bare får man hennes syn på Jane Austen og Jane Eyre og på Brontosaurus-søstrene, men også de essays, som konsentrerte seg om litterære størrelser fra 1800-tallets England, og som jeg *ikke* kjenner godt nok til, enn si har den største interesse for --leste jeg med glupsk appetitt. For så god er hun, nemlig, fru Woolf, at jeg blir interessert i det, den, dem hun er interessert i.
Hun burde fått en Nobel -- og det ville hun kanskje fått, om hun ikke hadde forlatt oss, så tragisk og så tidlig, i 1941.
Riktignok har jeg ikke lest akkurat denne Volume 1, som er den jeg finner i goodreads anglodominante arkiver, men en norsk utgave med kansje 20-25 essays og artikler, oversatt av Merethe Alfsen. Jeg slukte dem alle, med interesse, oppmerksomhet, og beundring. Ikke bare får man hennes syn på Jane Austen og Jane Eyre og på Brontosaurus-søstrene, men også de essays, som konsentrerte seg om litterære størrelser fra 1800-tallets England, og som jeg *ikke* kjenner godt nok til, enn si har den største interesse for --leste jeg med glupsk appetitt. For så god er hun, nemlig, fru Woolf, at jeg blir interessert i det, den, dem hun er interessert i.
April 23, 2011
Very interesting in general. Expected more stuff about her aesthetics -- but nevermind. The stuff, when it does occur, is rather different from her more famous essays (eg Modern Fiction). In general, the writing is lively and easy to read, as well as perceptive. It's great regardless of whether you want to read it for leisure or work (though having read it because of the latter, I must say the former seems more appealing). There are far more reviews of biographies than I expected: these are closer to her fictional pieces than her 'literary criticism'
February 10, 2016
I actually enjoyed these essays. throughout they gave a clear argument and also drew attention to significant historical literary contexts that may mean understanding her fiction to be easier. This has definitely restored my faith.
March 12, 2013
just received this book. I am planning to read/re-read just about everything that Woolf wrote.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews