A good essay must draw its curtain round us, but it must be a curtain that shuts us in, not out.According to Virginia Woolf, the goal of the essay is simply that it should give pleasure...It should lay us under a spell with its first word, and we should only wake, refreshed, with its last.One of the best practitioners of the art she analysed so rewardingly, Woolf displayed her essay-writing skills across a wide range of subjects, with all the craftsmanship, substance, and rich allure of her novels.This selection brings together thirty of her best essays, including the famousMr Bennett and Mrs Brown, a clarion call for modern fiction. She discusses the arts of writing and of reading, and the particular role and reputation of women writers. She writes movingly about her father and the art of biography, and of the London scene in the early decades of the twentieth century. Overall, these pieces are as indispensable to an understanding of this great writer as they are enchanting in their own right.Table of content:The Decay of Essay-WritingModern FictionThe Modern EssayHow it Strikes a ContemporaryMr Bennett and Mrs BrownCharacter in FictionImpassioned ProseHow Should One Read a Book?Poetry, Fiction and the FutureCraftsmanshipThe Feminine Note in FictionWomen NovelistsWomen and FictionProfessions for WomenMemories of a Working Womens GuildWhy?The New BiographyOn Being IllThe Art of BiographyThunder at WembleyThe CinemaStreet Haunting: A London AdventureThe Sun and the FishThe Docks of LondonOxford Street TideEvening over Sussex: Reflections in a Motor CarFlying over LondonWhy Art Today Follows PoliticsThoughts on Peace in an Air Raid