A Soaring Intellect

And that’s not all. Even when she is writing about an obscure scribbler, poetaster or essayist, Virginia Woolf is always interesting, and one has to read on. That is to say, she writes with shrewd discrimination and in a congenial style: one always feels in safe hands. Then, of course, the major writers. If one was in any doubt why Jane Austen is without equal, we now know, and Virginia Woolf tells us, as ever, in the subtlest way. Women authors, of course, have pride of place: the Brontes, George Eliot, Mrs Gaskell; but also Conrad, Hardy… . This is not a book of literary criticism, but a volume for those who love the writing endeavour, done by writers who are passionate about their art. Some of them, eccentric perhaps, do not fit the “classic”canon as put up by academics but they are respected here, in the same way as the so-called “Common Reader”, it is very clear, is also respected. (Who else do writers write for, if not for people - my surmise - ). As for the present and the future of the novel (the major genre addressed in these essays), Virginia Woolf keeps her counsel whilst implying (she never condemns) that there is much to be desired in what publishers present us with; and we shall have to wait and see… . What’s new!

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Let this not be your first Virginia !

The voice, oh this awful voice, it sounds computer generated , as if she is computing rhythms, and deliberately leaving modulation out,
So very painful to hear momentum,slowly dying, the more I think about it, the more I am convinced , it is a machine !
If you want to hear perfection, ( sadly she is not available for this one) seek out Juliet Stevenson, she reads - as she always does -with intelligence, and wit, so much is lost in this, one could be convinced VW had none of these qualities, in this instance book is best!

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