The Common Reader


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(4.7 stars; 3 reviews)

A collection of essays by Virginia Woolf, some of which originally appeared in the Times Literary Supplement or the Dial, and others were originally published for the first time in this volume.

"Anything that Virginia Woolf may have to say about letters is of more than ordinary interest, for her peculiar intelligence and informed attitude set her somewhat apart. She possesses the happy faculty simultaneously of enjoying and accepting the work of Daniel De Foe and James Joyce, of Joseph Addison and T.S. Eliot, of Jane Austen and Marcel Proust. Many of these essays are excellent examples of that type of writing which reveals the reactions, nuances, twisting and adventuring threads of thought and surmise which spring from the perusal and spiritual acquisition of other work."
Excerpts from the New York Times Book Review of The Common Reader, May 31, 1925 (9 hr 57 min)

Chapters

The Common Reader 2:57 Read by Alan Mapstone
The Pastons and Chaucer 54:11 Read by Rita Boutros
On Not Knowing Greek 41:26 Read by Kazbek
The Elizabethan Lumber Room 24:18 Read by Rita Boutros
Notes on an Elizabethan Play 29:06 Read by Hanna Ponomarenko
Montaigne 22:32 Read by Arden
The Duchess of Newcastle 22:42 Read by jenno
Rambling Round Evelyn 19:54 Read by Elin
Defoe 21:15 Read by Bruce Pirie
Addison 29:41 Read by Bruce Pirie
The Lives of the Obscure 2:07 Read by jenno
I. The Taylors and the Edgeworths 27:24 Read by jenno
II. Laetitia Pilkington 13:45 Read by jenno
III. Miss Ormerod 24:43 Read by jenno
Jane Austen 31:56 Read by Bruce Pirie
Modern Fiction 18:55 Read by J. M. Smallheer
'Jane Eyre' and 'Wuthering Heights' 18:06 Read by Bruce Pirie
George Eliot 28:25 Read by Bruce Pirie
The Russian Point of View 27:44 Read by Bruce Pirie
Outlines - I. Miss Mitford 18:49 Read by Rita Boutros
Outlines. II. Dr. Bentley 15:40 Read by Bruce Pirie
Outlines. III. Lady Dorothy Nevill 12:52 Read by Greta Buitkute
Outlines. IV. Archbishop Thomson 13:01 Read by Bruce Pirie
The Patron and the Crocus 9:19 Read by Owlivia
The Modern Essay 24:22 Read by Arden
Joseph Conrad 20:49 Read by Rita Boutros
How It Strikes a Contemporary 21:39 Read by Arden