Includes early refererences to Clarissa and Richard Dalloway giving parties. ( )

I found this interesting, and the stories shed a lot of light on the more famous novels, and the development of her stylistic innovations. Many of these stories have slight themes often about momentary feelings, The quality is inevitably somewhat variable, but the best are very good. ( )

I should admit: I've never particularly cared for Woolf's writing. And, truthfully and likewise, much of this work didn't impress me at all--simply, I was bored and only reading to read. But, the first story made me take notice enough that I was determined to finish the work, and in the end I'm glad I did. The first story, "A Haunted House", is a short story that carries all of the ambiguity for which we love haunted house stories such as Turn of the Screw and The Haunting of Hill House. And, as I got further into the collection, there were other stories which I really found marvelous, envisioned and written in the vein of Henry James.

I believe that, in many cases, it's Woolf's characters that have ruined her works for me. I generally find them to be either conceited or boring, and so their quiet stories leave me numb to any interest in her work. And, truthfully, I felt the same about many of the stories here. The saving graces, though, which I would recommend to any reader who'll enjoy that well-done, graceful, and tantalizing short story they come across, include: "A Haunted House", "Lappin and Lapinova", "Solid Objects", and "The Lady in the Looking-Glass". I've no doubt that I'll be repeatedly revisiting and rereading these four stories, and finding them was more than worth the journey I undertook through the full collection. ( )

http://home.comcast.net/~tonydal/wiseguy_reviews.htm ( )