Saving fleeting snapshots, astutely observing strangers, recording meticulous detail: modernist author Virginia Woolf knows how to capture a moment. In Kew Gardens and An Unwritten Novel, everyday life becomes a powerful stage for dreaming and storytelling. Woolf''s trademark stream-of-consciousness writing style is showcased in The Mark on the Wall where a nameless narrator zeroes in on their environment, becoming more and more unnerved by a seemingly inexplicable dark stain. The New Dress and The Looking Glass are brilliantly observed portraits of a few choice instants. In the former, the party dress Mabel Waring decides to wear leaves her feeling uncertain and doubtful, but she resolves to change for the better. In each of these seven stories, Woolf explores the nuanced events which make up daily life and maps how they intertwine with our thoughts and emotions. This series of pocket-sized paperbacks celebrates the art of the short story and marks Macmillan Collector''s Library''s 10th anniversary. Each contains a curated selection of short stories from a literary giant: Katherine Mansfield, Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Allen Poe, Oscar Wilde, Jane Austen, James, Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Alice Dunbar Nelson, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Rabindranath Tagore.

Autorentext

Virginia Woolf was born in 1882, the youngest daughter of writer Sir Leslie Stephen. She was educated at home with her sister Vanessa. The death of Woolf's mother in 1895 and her father in 1904 led to the first of the serious nervous breakdowns that would feature heavily in her life. Shortly afterwards she moved with her siblings to 46 Gordon Square, the first meeting place of the Bloomsbury Group, a literary and artistic circle. In 1912 Virginia published her first novel, The Voyage Out, and married Leonard Woolf. They would subsequently found the Hogarth Press. Eight more novels followed, including Mrs Dalloway (1925) and To the Lighthouse (1927), establishing her position as one of the twentieth century's most important modernist writers. Woolf died by suicide in 1941.