The Common Reader

HarperCollins is proud to present our range of timeless literary classics. ‘A good essay must have this permanent quality about it; it must draw its curtain round us, but it must be a curtain that shuts us in not out’ In the first volume of her critical essays, Virginia Woolf discusses the greatest authors of the literary canon – Jane Austen, George Eliot and Geoffrey Chaucer among others – with the everyday, ‘common reader’ in mind. With wit and insight, Woolf also revisits classic novels and examines scholarly subjects, from the Greek language to the Modern Essay, to the Brontë’s Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. First published in 1925, The Common Reader is a stunning work from one of the most perceptive minds of the twentieth century, a collection which continues to nurture the joys of literature and reading to this day.

HarperCollins is proud to present our range of timeless literary classics. The only advice, indeed, that one person can give another about reading is to take no advice, to follow your own instincts, to use your own reason, to come to your own conclusions. In her second volume of essays, Virginia Woolf delves deeper into the delights of reading. Here, she explores the novels of Thomas Hardy and Daniel Defoe, and recounts the fascinating lives of Christina Rossetti and Mary Wollstonecraft. In ‘ How Should One Read a Book?’ she offers sage advice for the common reader, and sheds light on the lessons and pleasures literature can provide. Published in 1932, The Common Reader: Second Series is a wise and illuminating companion collection to her 1925 First Series. Woolf’s enduring appeal and ideas continue to resonate with readers in the twenty-first century.

HarperCollins is proud to present our range of timeless literary classics. ‘A good essay must have this permanent quality about it; it must draw its curtain round us, but it must be a curtain that shuts us in not out’ In the first volume of her critical essays, Virginia Woolf discusses the greatest authors of the literary canon – Jane Austen, George Eliot and Geoffrey Chaucer among others – with the everyday, ‘common reader’ in mind. With wit and insight, Woolf also revisits classic novels and examines scholarly subjects, from the Greek language to the Modern Essay, to the Brontë’s Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. First published in 1925, The Common Reader is a stunning work from one of the most perceptive minds of the twentieth century, a collection which continues to nurture the joys of literature and reading to this day.

HarperCollins is proud to present our range of timeless literary classics. The only advice, indeed, that one person can give another about reading is to take no advice, to follow your own instincts, to use your own reason, to come to your own conclusions. In her second volume of essays, Virginia Woolf delves deeper into the delights of reading. Here, she explores the novels of Thomas Hardy and Daniel Defoe, and recounts the fascinating lives of Christina Rossetti and Mary Wollstonecraft. In ‘ How Should One Read a Book?’ she offers sage advice for the common reader, and sheds light on the lessons and pleasures literature can provide. Published in 1932, The Common Reader: Second Series is a wise and illuminating companion collection to her 1925 First Series. Woolf’s enduring appeal and ideas continue to resonate with readers in the twenty-first century.

2021 Reprint of the 1925 Edition. The Common Reader, a collection of essays by Virginia Woolf, was published in two series, the first in 1925 and the second in 1932. This edition reprints the first series, first published in 1925. Most of the essays appeared originally in such publications as the Times Literary Supplement, The Nation, New Statesman, Life and Letters, Dial, Vogue, and The Yale Review. The title indicates Woolf's intention that her essays be read by the "common reader" who reads books for personal enjoyment. Using the sympathetic persona of "the common reader," Woolf treats literary topics. Woolf outlines her literary philosophy in the introductory essay to the first series, "The Common Reader," and in the concluding essay to the second series, "How Should One Read a Book?" The first series includes essays on Geoffrey Chaucer, Michel de Montaigne, Jane Austen, George Eliot, and Joseph Conrad, as well as discussions of the Greek language and the modern essay. Content: The common reader -- The Pastons and Chaucer -- On not knowing Greek -- The Elizabethan lumber room -- Notes on an Elizabethan play -- Montaigne -- The Duchess of Newcastle -- Rambling round Evelyn -- Defoe -- Addison -- The lives of the obscure: The Taylors and the Edgeworths. Laetitia Pilkington. Miss Ormerod -- Jane Austen -- Modern fiction -- "Jane Eyre" and "Wuthering Heights" -- George Eliot -- The Russian point of view -- Outlines: Miss Mitford. Dr. Bentley. Lady Dorothy Nevill. Archbishop Thomson -- The patron and the crocus -- The modern essay -- Joseph Conrad -- How it strikes a contemporary.

2021 Reprint of the 1925 Edition. The Common Reader, a collection of essays by Virginia Woolf, was published in two series, the first in 1925 and the second in 1932. This edition reprints the first series, first published in 1925. Most of the essays appeared originally in such publications as the Times Literary Supplement, The Nation, New Statesman, Life and Letters, Dial, Vogue, and The Yale Review. The title indicates Woolf's intention that her essays be read by the "common reader" who reads books for personal enjoyment. Using the sympathetic persona of "the common reader," Woolf treats literary topics. Woolf outlines her literary philosophy in the introductory essay to the first series, "The Common Reader," and in the concluding essay to the second series, "How Should One Read a Book?" The first series includes essays on Geoffrey Chaucer, Michel de Montaigne, Jane Austen, George Eliot, and Joseph Conrad, as well as discussions of the Greek language and the modern essay. Content: The common reader -- The Pastons and Chaucer -- On not knowing Greek -- The Elizabethan lumber room -- Notes on an Elizabethan play -- Montaigne -- The Duchess of Newcastle -- Rambling round Evelyn -- Defoe -- Addison -- The lives of the obscure: The Taylors and the Edgeworths. Laetitia Pilkington. Miss Ormerod -- Jane Austen -- Modern fiction -- "Jane Eyre" and "Wuthering Heights" -- George Eliot -- The Russian point of view -- Outlines: Miss Mitford. Dr. Bentley. Lady Dorothy Nevill. Archbishop Thomson -- The patron and the crocus -- The modern essay -- Joseph Conrad -- How it strikes a contemporary.