Virginia Woolf, The Common Reader

Teresa Prudente (Università Degli Studi di Torino)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.08: English Writing and Culture of the early Twentieth Century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: Chris Baldick (Goldsmiths College, University of London), Peter Childs (Newman University), Louise McDonald (Newman University)

Dates

First circulation or publication Apr 1925

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Non-Fiction
- Commentary / Criticism (literary)
- Essay Collection

Resources

The Common Reader was published in April 1925, just one month before Mrs. Dalloway, but Woolf had first conceived the project of collecting the best of her reviews and articles into a volume already in 1920, as soon as she had completed her first experimental novel, Jacob’s Room. The reasons for such a long process of composition were several and complex, and connected both to the form and meaning that she wanted to impart to the volume and to Woolf’s writing method: she started working intensely on The Common Reader in 1922, in parallel with Mrs. Dalloway, thus inaugurating her technique of composing two different texts at the same time.

Though mainly comprising articles and …

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2334 words

Citation: Prudente, Teresa. "The Common Reader". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 13 February 2010 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=1220, accessed 25 November 2024.]

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