Virginia Woolf A to Z: A Comprehensive Reference to Her Life, Works, and Critical Reception

Having the appearance of a coffee-table book, Mark Hussey's "Virginia Woolf: A To Z" belies a very serious and comprehensive book. In addition to all the expected entries, the book includes photographs of the dust jackets of her works; an exhaustive (17 pages) of the works cited by the author; that list arranged alphabetically and topically; a most comprehensive topical list of entries; a comprehensive (8 charts) of genealogies (to include Leslie Stephen, Harriet Thackeray, Julia Prinsep (her mother), Leonard, Duncan Grant and Lytton Strachey, and Roger Fry; and, of course, a most excellent index. If there is any question whether this is simply a showy coffee-table book or a serious work of scholarship, all one needs to do is read, not just glance, but actually read the 15 pages devoted to "The Waves." I originally bought this book to add to my Virginia Woolf library, but I now realize what a treasure this book is. Highly, highly recommend it for all students of Woolf, whether novices or seasoned.

This book supplemented a course I took on the works of Woolf. It is filled with interesting background material and helpful character biographies. Hussey skillfully condensed volumes of biographical and critical work on Woolf into one, user-friendly manual.