The Common Reader
Woolf wrote criticism for people without university Greek, on Montaigne, Austen and the obscure lives she liked rescuing from footnotes. The most companionable criticism in English.
Woolf’s essays for the general reader, taking in the Greeks, Montaigne, Austen, and the obscure lives she liked to rescue from footnotes. She wrote them to be read by people without university Greek, and they remain the most companionable criticism in English, opinionated without ever making the reader feel excluded from the argument.
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Maria Popova
Virginia Woolf (January 25, 1882–March 28, 1941) explores this with her characteristic rigor of thought and passion for language in a wonderful essay about the Ancient Greeks later included in The Common Reader (public library) — the classic collection that also gave us Woolf on how to hear your soul.
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