"If you need a critical opinion on Virginia Woolf, buy this book. I was originally apprehensive because I have only read a few of her novels and her essay "A Room Of One's Own". Nevertheless, there's plenty of opinions to draw from, and the critics inside are not always coming from a Modernist / Feminist angle. There's some nice subtle criticism of Woolf's snobbery and the general superiority complex that can be drawn on for counter-arguments.

Of course, not everyone buys books like this for academic purposes. The essays don't require any particular expertise in the language (like for example some of the material written on structuralists, deconstructionism, utilitarianism etc...). The essays were most useful in forcing me to view Woolf's essays and fiction critically. It's very easy to agree with some of the points made in her fiction without stepping back and asking "who is she to disregard a whole generation of literature?". This book was first published in 2000 and is now in a second updated edition. It is a pity it was not around when I did my Humanities courses with the Open University late '70s. ( )