Virginia Woolf : A Collection of Critical Essays

20th Century Views

by Claire (editor) Sprague

Genres: Essays

185 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1971

Reviews

[Lizzy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Man, I am flying through books at the moment! Overall, this set of essays were okay. Some were good (Leon Edel, Josephine O'Brien Schaefer), some were not so good. The less impressive ones ranged from being a tad stodgy, to downright dull. And the fact that they were written between 1937-1968 makes them somewhat old-fashioned and out-dated, in my view; for example, John Graham manages to write an entire essay on Orlando without mentioning Vita Sackville-West even once! Though maybe I'm the only one slightly outraged by the omission, being a fangirl.

Ruth Z. Temple's opening paragraph of 'To the Lighthouse as Vision and Confession' amused me:

"You can tell anything, but on condition that you never say 'I'." Thus Proust to Gide about the latter's Corydon, which, for its personal revelations, Proust deplored. A curious remark, one might think, from the author of possibly the longest "I" novel ever published.

Now, I hate using this abbreviation, but in this particular instance I can think of none better (and it's 4:30am, so my compositional skills have been zapped by exhaustion).

LOL.

Oh, and Goodreads, I wish to add my voice to those wanting a half-star rating scheme. If you change one thing about this site, change that. Thank you.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a nicely-balanced collection of essays. Some are very interesting and insightful. Others serve do remind how wrong, self-important, and wind-baggy some literary critics can be. Overall, an enjoyable book.

[Agustín Murillo goodreads · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una colección de artículos sobre casi toda la obra de Virginia Woolf. Algunos demasiado académicos para mis conocimientos; sin embargo, con su lectura mejoré mi comprensión de Virginia Woolf. Ahora siguen algunas relecturas de sus textos.