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As I mentioned yesterday, I thought the titular essay in Thoughts on Peace in an Air Raid would set the tone of all the following Virginia Woolf essays, this book being part of the Penguin Great Ideas series. And it seemed that the second essay, “Street Haunting,” had it heading in that direction. In “Thoughts on Peace” Woolf suggests that men need to be compensated for the loss of their guns and that compensation should be “access to creative feelings.” Well “Street Haunting,” if you have never read this marvelous essay, is certainly full of creative feelings.
In order to get out of the house, the excuse is made to go buy a pencil. And we follow Woolf along the street, moving in and out of the lives of the people she sees there. What better access to creative feelings than being able to imagine yourself into the lives of others? To
penetrate a little way, far enough to give oneself the illusion that one is not tethered to a single mind, but can put on briefly for a few minutes the bodies and minds of others.
And then in the next essay, “Oxford Street Tide,” we meet the bustling and loud working class selling their wares along the street and we are asked to imagine their lives too. But then, the next essay and all that follow are about books and writing and reading. And perhaps, now that I think of it, they are related to the first essay. Because how best to access creative feelings than through reading and writing? Huh. So there it is then. Take away the guns and let them read books. Seems like good compensation to me!
Of the reading and writing essays that fill the rest of the book, some I have read and some I have not. It was a pleasure to read new essays and a joy to revisit old favorites. In “Craftsmanship” Woolf talks about the slipperiness of words. She writes of words as though they are alive, and in some ways they are:
They are the wildest, freest, most irresponsible, most unteachable of all things. Of course, you can catch them and sort them and place them in alphabetical order in dictionaries. But words do not live in dictionaries; they live in the mind.
Can’t you just picture wild herds of words roving across the plains? Of course there are also words that live in dark places, slinking in the shadows, stalking you. Oh those wild words!
There are several essays in which Woolf writes about critics and readers. Critics can be useful, she says in “How it Strikes a Contemporary,” but readers should not bow to them. A reader should
respect [her] own instincts, to follow them fearlessly and, rather than submit them to the control of any critic or reviewer alive, to check them by reading and reading again the masterpieces of the past.
Woolf comes back to this again in “How Should One Read a Book?” Reading is difficult and complex, but trust your instincts because
To admit authorities, however heavily furred and gowned, into our libraries and let them tell us how to read, what to read, what value to place upon what we read, is to destroy the spirit of freedom which is the breath of those sanctuaries. Everywhere else we may be bound by laws and conventions — there we have none.
The essay offers good advice about how to read. I have read this one before but it has been a long time. I think I shall have to try and remember to return to it every now and then because not only does it offer good advice, but it also gives a great boost of confidence.
Other essays in the book include one on biography and whether or not it can be considered art. Another on asking questions. One on modern fiction. And a really interesting one for writers on choosing your patron (audience) wisely:
To know whom to write for is to know how to write.
Isn’t that the truth?
I loved this little collection. There is so much in it to chew over. So much worth revisiting again and again. If you have a chance to read this little gem, don’t pass it by.
Your review was persuasive. I now have the Kindle edition. Thank you.
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Richard, I hope you enjoy it!
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These essays sound absolutely brilliant – what a case they make for the essay form which can (like short stories) be undervalued compared to the Great God The Novel. I love the idea behind Street Haunting and the quote about reading and freedom is so spot on.
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Ian, Woolf is a top notch essayist. Everyone always focuses on her fiction but her essays are just as marvelous. I’ve read Street Haunting a number of times and it gets better with each reading. It is very much like a short story in many ways but does things I don’t think short stories can do, at least none I’ve read!
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I have to admit, I have never been able to get through anything Virginia Woolf. I’ve tried. I guess I just don’t “get her.” But, I applauded when I read her quote about not letting anyone dictate what we read or how we read. What I have learned from your post is that perhaps I would prefer reading Woolf write about writing and reading rather than read what she wrote. Does that make any sense? In other words, perhaps if I started with her essays, I would eventually be able to “get” her novels. I imagine it’s worth a try.
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Grad, you know I love Woolf and Mrs. Dalloway is one of my favorite books. Have you ever read her short story The Mark on the Wall? It’s about a woman who sees a mark on the wall and the whole story is one association and imagining after another inspired by the mark. And at the end you’d think hours had passed but it has only been a few minutes. I think it is a good example of what Woolf is about in miniature. Her essays are all wonderful and sometimes as beautiful as her fiction. Street Haunting in this collection and Death of a Moth. And then of course she always has interesting things to say about books and reading. Perhaps you would enjoy her essays more.
And, I am so glad you read and enjoyed Address Unknown! Wow wow wow pretty much says it all. I still feel that way about it, it just takes the breath right out of you at the end. yay! 🙂
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Oh, and by the way. I read Address Unknown, thanks to you. It was one of the best things I’ve read in a long, long time. Wow! Wow, wow, wow. The only thing I didn’t like is that the Kindle version is not “loan-able”. I had wanted to pass it along to a friend, but no such luck. But it’s inexpensive so…anyway, thank you so much for posting about it. I would never have read it if you had not. (Yet another reason to always stay tuned in to Some Many Books.)
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I do love Woolf’s essays. She had a real gift for them (what did she NOT have a gift to write, I wonder??). You remind me also of a rare recording of her voice, in the BBC archives of writers. My friend played it to me because it always makes her laugh. Woolf sounds frightfully posh, but also terribly jolly, as if there is a smile behind everything she is saying. And she’s quite amusing, too. Her writing can feel very cool and collected, but she must have had many moments of real warmth.
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Litlove, I haven’t seen Woolf write any poetry so maybe that is one this she didn’t have a gift for? She is a brilliant essayist. She makes it look so easy. I’ve heard that voice recording. She must have been a fun person sometimes in spite of her prickly reputation. I would love to have been a fly on the wall when she was having a jolly time!
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I’ve just started reading Mrs Dalloway – somewhat trepidatiously, as my last encounter with VW was a struggle. But now her essays are in my Amazon basket! You’ve really opened up the writer here. A very animated, passionate review. And along with all the encouraging comments, I’m persuaded that my VW experience is just about to improve! Thanks :0)
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Barmy, Oh Mrs Dalloway is marvelous! But it is hard. I had to make more than one attempt at it before I finally made it but I am so glad I kept at it! I’ve read it through a number of times now and love it more each time. When I stopped trying to get everything and just let it all roll over me is when it clicked. I hope you find a way in and fall in love! I hope you enjoy her essays too. She really is an underrated essayist.
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This sounds like a great collection. I’ve not read many of Woolf’s essays, but the few I have I have really liked. She really was an amazing writer. The last one, How Should One Read a Book is an essay I’ve returned to several times now and always seem to get something new out of it. Will keep an eye out for this one.
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Danielle, it’s amazing how good she in so many different forms and so different yet still similar in all of them. For not being prescriptive, How Should One Read a Book has lots of good advice in it, a real pleasure.
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