Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
Audiobook7 hours
Genius and Ink: Virginia Woolf on How to Read
Written by Virginia Woolf
Narrated by Olivia Dowd
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
()
About this audiobook
FOREWORD BY ALI SMITH
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY FRANCESCA WADE
Who better to serve as a guide to great books and their authors than Virginia Woolf?
In the early years of its existence, the Times Literary Supplement published some of the finest writers in English: T. S. Eliot, Henry James and E. M. Forster among them. But one of the paper’s defining voices was Virginia Woolf, who produced a string of superb essays between the two World Wars.
The weirdness of Elizabethan plays, the pleasure of revisiting favourite novels, the supreme examples of Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot and Henry James, Thomas Hardy and Joseph Conrad: all are here, in anonymously published pieces, in which may be glimpsed the thinking behind Woolf’s works of fiction and the enquiring, feminist spirit of A Room of One’s Own.
Here is Woolf the critical essayist, offering, at one moment, a playful hypothesis and, at another, a judgement laid down with the authority of a twentieth-century Dr Johnson. Here is Woolf working out precisely what’s great about Hardy, and how Elizabeth Barrett Browning made books a “substitute for living” because she was “forbidden to scamper on the grass”. Above all, here is Virginia Woolf the reader, whose enthusiasm for great literature remains palpable and inspirational today.
Author
Virginia Woolf
VIRGINIA WOOLF (1882–1941) was one of the major literary figures of the twentieth century. An admired literary critic, she authored many essays, letters, journals, and short stories in addition to her groundbreaking novels, including Mrs. Dalloway, To The Lighthouse, and Orlando.
Related to Genius and Ink
Related audiobooks
What to Read and Why A Writer's Diary Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Letters to a Young Poet: With the Letters to Rilke from the "Young Poet" Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Writer's Library: he Authors You Love on the Books That Changed Their Lives Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of the Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Men in My Life Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Way of the Writer: Reflections on the Art and Craft of Storytelling Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pity the Reader: On Writing With Style Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Life & Work of Marcel Proust Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Spooky Art: Thoughts on Writing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Take Arms Against a Sea of Troubles: The Power of a Reader's Mind over a Universe of Death Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Blue Flower Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Giants of Russian Literature: Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and Chekhov Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Virginia Woolf - The Short Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jacob's Room Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Waves Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Monday or Tuesday (Unabridged) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Night and Day Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Four Short Stories by Virginia Woolf Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5To the Lighthouse Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Kew Gardens Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5How to Read and Why Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Aspects of the Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Orlando Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bliss, and Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Voyage Out Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Virginia Woolf Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Literary Criticism For You
One in a Millennial: On Friendship, Feelings, Fangirls, and Fitting In Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Conspiracy against the Human Race: A Contrivance of Horror Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The World of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5To Kill a Mockingbird Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Thalia Book Club: Amor Towles A Gentleman in Moscow Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Meet Me in the Margins Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Catcher in the Rye Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5C. S. Lewis: Encountering God's Truth through Fiction Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Common Sense Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fahrenheit 451 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pandora's Jar: Women in the Greek Myths Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Thalia Book Club: Neil Gaiman: The Ocean at the End of the Lane Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Daniel Kahneman's "Thinking Fast and Slow": A Macat Analysis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Outsiders Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/51984 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Thalia Book Club: Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird 50th Anniversary Celebration Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lord of the Flies Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Don't Panic: Douglas Adams and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mythologies: The Complete Edition, in a New Translation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago Volume 3: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Book Thief Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Writing (and Writers): A Miscellany of Advice and Opinions Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Brave New World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related podcast episodes
Jane Alison, "Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative" (Catapult, 2019): An interview with Jane Alison 100% found this document usefulAfter Sappho, with Selby Wynn Schwartz 0% found this document usefulElif Batuman & Merve Emre: Either/Or 0% found this document usefulDeborah Levy & Stephen Grosz: August Blue 0% found this document usefulThe Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter: For a special episode recorded at the Bath Festiv… 0% found this document usefulAn epic conversation with Madeline Miller: Madeline Miller on myth, translation, and writing a perfect sentence 0% found this document usefulClaire-Louise Bennett on Checkout 19 0% found this document usefulThe Charm of 'The Idiot' 0% found this document usefulInterview with Jen Campbell Pt. 2 0% found this document usefulMrs Dalloway: Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Virginia Woolf's novel Mrs Dalloway. 100% found this document usefulThe Waste Land and Modernity: Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss TS Eliot's seminal poem The Waste Land. 0% found this document usefulMiddlemarch: Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss George Eliot's greatest novel, published 1871-72. 0% found this document useful434 The Story of the Hogarth Press Part 1 - Virginia Woolf's First Self-Published Story 0% found this document useful398 Fernando Pessoa 0% found this document usefulA Room of One's Own: Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Virginia Woolf's essay on women and literature. 0% found this document usefulAmy Key & Megan Nolan: Arrangements in Blue 0% found this document usefulOn Eyre: Wide Sargasso Sea 100% found this document useful
Related articles
Susan Sontag on Being a Writer: “You Have to Be Obsessed” Literary HubArticle
Susan Sontag on Being a Writer: “You Have to Be Obsessed”
Nov 15, 2017
6 min read5 Writers Who Should be Feminist Saints Literary HubArticle
5 Writers Who Should be Feminist Saints
Mar 7, 2018
5 min readOn the Daily Rituals of Joan Didion, Patti Smith, and More Literary HubArticle
On the Daily Rituals of Joan Didion, Patti Smith, and More
Mar 27, 2019
5 min readClaire Tomalin on Hiring (and Dating) a Young Martin Amis Literary HubArticle
Claire Tomalin on Hiring (and Dating) a Young Martin Amis
Aug 21, 2018
5 min readNo One Gets Sylvia Plath Literary HubArticle
No One Gets Sylvia Plath
Nov 6, 2020
16 min readYour Week in Virtual Book Events, Dec. 7th to Dec. 13th Literary HubArticle
Your Week in Virtual Book Events, Dec. 7th to Dec. 13th
Dec 7, 2020
14 min readRedux: A Creator of Inwardness The Paris ReviewArticle
Redux: A Creator of Inwardness
Jul 9, 2019
2 min readPre-order* Your Copy Today At The Paris ReviewArticle
Pre-order* Your Copy Today At
Mar 9, 2021
1 min readFeminize Your Canon: Mary Heaton Vorse The Paris ReviewArticle
Feminize Your Canon: Mary Heaton Vorse
Nov 25, 2019
8 min readQueerness, Cyborgs, and Cephalopods: An Interview with Franny Choi The Paris ReviewArticle
Queerness, Cyborgs, and Cephalopods: An Interview with Franny Choi
May 21, 2019
9 min readU.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón Poets & WritersArticle
U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón
Dec 14, 2022
2 min readThe Memoir in Essays: A Reading List Literary HubArticle
The Memoir in Essays: A Reading List
Apr 29, 2020
5 min readLittoral Madness: On Kathy Acker The Paris ReviewArticle
Littoral Madness: On Kathy Acker
Aug 22, 2017
13 min readRediscovering Reading After Graduate School Nearly Destroyed It Literary HubArticle
Rediscovering Reading After Graduate School Nearly Destroyed It
Jan 16, 2019
5 min readMonstrous Cute: An Interview with Mona Awad The Paris ReviewArticle
Monstrous Cute: An Interview with Mona Awad
Jun 12, 2019
9 min readOn Louise Glück The Threepenny ReviewArticle
On Louise Glück
Dec 1, 2021
I WAS LYING in bed late at night, woeful, confused by another death, this one the death of a close friend; the losses had been mounting steadily, a bewildering number of losses, each one specific, difficult to accept, hard to overcome, and I must hav
12 min readFinding The Writing Contest For You Poets & WritersArticle
Finding The Writing Contest For You
Apr 13, 2022
YOU wrote, rewrote, despaired; washed your hair, dishes, and curtains; binged on Netflix, got back to your desk; revised, gave up, and wrote again. And now you have finally created something you feel ready to send to a contest. But where do you find
6 min readJan Morris The Paris ReviewArticle
Jan Morris
Jun 15, 2018
I have always rather envied the poet Ovid, who was banished from Rome by the emperor Augustus, you may remember, to a remote place called Tomis on the shores of the Black Sea. There he died, ten years later, and his exile has gone into legend and int
17 min read'Greek Lessons' Is An Intimate, Vulnerable Portrayal Of Two Lonely People NPRArticle
'Greek Lessons' Is An Intimate, Vulnerable Portrayal Of Two Lonely People
Apr 20, 2023
3 min readThe Art of Fiction No. 246 The Paris ReviewArticle
The Art of Fiction No. 246
Mar 3, 2020
30 min readSure, Plot is Good, But Have You Tried Talking About Story Shape? Literary HubArticle
Sure, Plot is Good, But Have You Tried Talking About Story Shape?
Mar 17, 2020
5 min readOn The Impossibility Of Locating The Line Between Fiction And Non Literary HubArticle
On The Impossibility Of Locating The Line Between Fiction And Non
Oct 15, 2018
4 min readWatch the Only Existing Footage of Clarice Lispector Literary HubArticle
Watch the Only Existing Footage of Clarice Lispector
Dec 11, 2017
2 min read'Vita & Virginia': Get A Room (Of Your Own), You Two NPRArticle
'Vita & Virginia': Get A Room (Of Your Own), You Two
Aug 22, 2019
2 min readPoet Mary Oliver Dies at 83 Literary HubArticle
Poet Mary Oliver Dies at 83
Jan 17, 2019
2 min readRecognizing the Enduring Whiteness of Jane Austen Literary HubArticle
Recognizing the Enduring Whiteness of Jane Austen
Dec 11, 2019
7 min read'Her Body And Other Parties:' Be Your Own Madwoman NPRArticle
'Her Body And Other Parties:' Be Your Own Madwoman
Oct 8, 2017
2 min readDeborah Levy’s Disorienting, Captivating Fiction The AtlanticArticle
Deborah Levy’s Disorienting, Captivating Fiction
Oct 11, 2019
5 min readA Creation Myth In Sheila Heti's 'Pure Colour' Has Art Critics As Evolutionary Stars NPRArticle
A Creation Myth In Sheila Heti's 'Pure Colour' Has Art Critics As Evolutionary Stars
Feb 17, 2022
3 min readRead Susan Sontag’s Love Letter to Borges, Written 10 Years After His Death Literary HubArticle
Read Susan Sontag’s Love Letter to Borges, Written 10 Years After His Death
Jan 16, 2018
3 min read
Reviews for Genius and Ink
Rating: 3.9285715 out of 5 stars
4/5
14 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I love her genius! Her firm, gentle manner as she reviewed the masterpieces. Wonderful!