The Value of Virginia Woolf

The Value of Virginia Woolf explores the writings of Virginia Woolf from her early texts to her inventive novels.

Madelyn Detloff (Author)

9781107081505, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 8 March 2016

144 pages
22.8 x 13.9 x 1.4 cm, 0.29 kg

'… the pedagogic value of The Value of Virginia Woolf is undeniable.' Woolf Studies Annual

In The Value of Virginia Woolf, Madelyn Detloff explores the writings of Virginia Woolf from her early texts to her challenging and inventive novels. Detloff demonstrates why Woolf has enduring value for our own time, both as a defender of modernist experimentation and as a novelist of innovation and poetic vision who also exhibits moments of intense insight and philosophical depth. A famously enigmatic figure, Woolf's literary works offer different rewards to different readers. The Value of Virginia Woolf examines not only the significance of her most celebrated fiction but the function of time and allegory, natural and urban spaces, voice and language that give Woolf's writings their perennial appeal.

1. Eudemonia: the necessary art of living
2. Incandescence: attention and illumination
3. Interdependence: pattern and precarity
Epilogue: Woolf's legacy.

Subject Areas: Gender studies, gender groups [JFSJ], Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers [DSK], Literary theory [DSA], Literature: history & criticism [DS]