Reviews

The Common Reader - First Series by Virginia Woolf

lauraeatsbooks's review against another edition

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challenging reflective slow-paced

3.0

reggikko's review against another edition

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4.0

It comes as no surprise that Virginia Woolf was a brilliant essayist. The problem with some of the essays belong to this reader and not to the writer, to whit: I am unfamiliar with some of the works Woolf covers. My enjoyment was greatest in those essays on subjects with which I am familiar: Chaucer, Elizabethan drama, Defoe, Austen, Jane Eyre, George Eliot. I also greatly enjoyed the essay on Russian Literature, and the Miss Mitford section in "Outlines."

In a sense, this collection gives a brief history of English Literature. The breadth of Woolf's knowledge is astounding, especially when one considers that, being a woman of a certain time, she had no formal education. A naturally inquisitive mind and her father's vast library served her quite well.

narmada's review against another edition

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4.0

I am lying in bed with a soft blanket and hot chocolate, while Ms. Woolf holds my hand and tells me stories. This is what reading her work feels like.

dmaude's review against another edition

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4.0

Literary criticism without literary theory.
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