The Complete Shorter Fiction of Virginia Woolf

Never before collected in a single volume, Woolf's 46 short stories demonstrate her fondness for experimenting with narrative forms and voices. Arranged chronologically, the pieces range from tales with traditional plot lines to denser interior monologues, and enable the reader to appreciate Woolf's development as a writer of fiction. In her fine introduction, Dick, a professor at Canada's Queen's University, notes that Woolf used her short fiction as a ""testing ground'' for her novels, and this becomes evident. (Clarissa Dalloway appears in a number of the stories, either running errands or entertaining at home.) Woolf's many guisesincluding the feminist, the social commentator, the biting witsurface in turn here, and the composite portrait that emerges is extremely satisfying. Woolf scholars and collectors of her work will welcome the inclusion of a number of previously unpublished stories. First serial to Harper's and The American Poetry Review. Foreign rights: Hogarth Press. January 10