On Not Knowing Greek

Book excerpt: "Taken from the two volumes of The Common Reader, Virginia Woolf's celebrated essay collection, the pieces presented here were expressly intended for the enjoyment of those who read for pleasure, rather than for professional critics. Casting her expert eye over Greek tragedy, Elizabethan theatre and - particularly pertinently for a pioneer of modernism - modern fiction, Woolf enlivens her subject matter and brings to it the profundity and idiosyncrasy associated with the author of Orlando and A Room of One's Own." "As erudite as it is sympathetic, On Not Knowing Greek is a perceptive and exacting guide to reading books from one of the foremost writers of the modernist movement."--BOOK JACKET.