This compact anthology presents a fine selection of fiction and nonfiction by one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. The selections of essays and memoirs are especially good, and while it can't do full justice to Woolf's longer works, this volume does include several excerpts from her best novels. If you have never read Virginia Woolf before, start with her brilliant book-length essay "A Room of One's Own" (represented here by too brief a portion) along with this anthology. And, for those who have already discovered her work, this collection makes a nice sampler and refresher - a book to pull off the shelf whenever you want to dip into that extraordinary mind (and prose) again.

For anyone who is familiar with the life of Virginia Woolf, this book will offer few surprises. What it does offer, however, is an continously interesting slant on the life of one of the most talented, yet troubled women of the Twentieth Century.

Through Leaska's comprehensive biography, we learn the intimate details of her family life. Especially interesting in the first few chapters is the meticulous dissection of Virginia's mother, who served as the perpetual victim forever pining for her first husband. She revelled in her feminity and equated this with servitude toward those who were suffering or in distress.

Woolf is indeed a fascinating subject of study and Leaska's biography definitely does her complicated persona justice.

If this is your first foray in the world of Virginia Woolf, it would be beneficial to read some of her works including "To the Lighthouse" and "A Room of One's Own" first as these are often quoted and will only serv! e to complement this rich biography.

This has to be the best biographical study of Virginia Woolf. It is in a new style of creative biography rather than the old forms of didactic dissertation that should be only part of Library indexing and not of biographical scholarship. Professor Leaska brings the reader into the life of this famous fiminist like no other previous attempt, including Mr. Bell and the family log. The parents, Leslie and Julia, become real and full of the complications of parenting with such a sensitive child as Virginia. Her sister Vanessa is now shown in a much fullerl characterization than anyone has tried before. Leaska has carefully and skillfully devided these individuals from the whole picture, and 'painted' each person in a many faceted, illuminated composition and finally brings them back together in a masterful mural of reality and experience. The setting of England and the continent play a particularly stimulating part in describing the physical conditions sourrounding Virginia throughout her life. There is 'climate' throughout this book. You have contact and feeling to Virginia and not just information. She was not allowed to go to college to learn the mechanisms for her passion of writing but wrote at home and learned her own way. "A Room of Ones Own" is one of the leading declarations for women and their individual rights. Leaska presents her defiance in full force. Vita Sackville-West was one of Virginia's best friends and part of the gathering of people around this charismatic leader and activist. Vita is another study by Leaska of creative independance and enormous vitality that joined, at times with Virginia, to revel in their delight in knowing each other. The chapters of their friendship are often moving and reaffirm the value of what true friendship means. The book is a masterpiece. The style is new and directed. The characters in this drama/tragedy you will never forget. Virginia now becomes a sensual being away from her writing and then leading into her books. The New York Times reviewer Michael Anderson should be ashamed for his homophobic attitudes and some kind of revenge against Leaska or possibly Virgina herself.