Synopses & Reviews
Virginia Woolf was already an accomplished novelist and critic when she was commissioned by the British edition of
Good Housekeeping to write a series entitled "Six Articles on London Life." Originally published bimonthly, beginning in December 1931, five of the essays were eventually collected and published in 1981. The sixth essay, "Portrait of a Londoner," had been missing from Woolf's oeuvre until it was rediscovered at the University of Sussex in 2004. Ecco is honored to publish the complete collection in the United States for the first time.
A walking tour of Woolf's beloved hometown, The London Scene begins at the London Docks and follows Woolf as she visits several iconic sites throughout the city, including the Oxford Street shopping strip, John Keats's house on Hampstead Heath, Thomas Carlyle's house in Chelsea, St. Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, and the Houses of Parliament.
These six essential essays capture Woolf at her best, exploring modern consciousness through the prism of 1930s London while simultaneously painting an intimate, touching portrait of this sprawling metropolis and its fascinating inhabitants.
Review
“1930s London comes alive in these six evocative essays. . . a discerning, affectionate tour of her beloved city.” Washington Post Book World
Review
“Woolf is still a charming, relevant companion to the delights of the great metropolis.” Publishers Weekly
About the Author
Born in London as Adeline Virginia Stephen, Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) was a distinguished novelist, essayist, and critic; cofounder of the Hogarth Press with her husband, Leonard Woolf; and a central figure of the famed Bloomsbury group. Celebrated for her modernist sensibility and stylistic innovations,Woolf is best remembered for the novels Mrs. Dalloway (1925) and To the Lighthouse (1927), and the feminist classic A Room of One's Own (1929).