Publisher's Synopsis
Rosenberg argues for an intertextual reading of Woolf's essays by placing it within the larger network of literary history. While a few studies have set out to rescue Woolf from attacks of amateurism by placing her within a Victorian tradition (as the inheritor of Victorian values), Rosenberg's theory is that Woolf's critical work should be viewed as a product of her reading of the 18th century, specifically the critical values articulated by Samuel Johnson and mediated by her father, Leslie Stephen.;It is Leslie Stephen's mediation of Johnson and Woolf that allows for the transmission of notions of reading, writing and speech, the most important of which is the idea of good writing as good conversation. This implies a belief in an interaction between the "common reader" and the writing she or he reads: the writer is in dialogue with her reader. Woolf's theories of speech and writing are thus a response to the theories of both her father, Leslie Stephen, and their common literary father, Samuel Johnson.
