Modern Fiction

Woolf makes many references to the works of other writers. In what ways might this technique be persuasive to readers?

Woolf suggests that all criticism is afflicted by “vagueness.” What does Woolf mean by this? How does her own essay seek to avoid it?

Read Anton Chekhov’s “Gusev.” In what ways does it illustrate Woolf’s arguments, other than those she outlines herself? In what ways does it diverge from Woolf’s claims?

Do some more research on the Bloomsbury Group. To what degree might the group’s political ideologies have influenced her literary criticism?

Woolf’s essay was first published in 1919. How might contemporary events (particularly World War I) have shaped her ideas about The Proper Stuff of Fiction?

Apply Woolf’s exhortation “let us record the atoms as they fall upon the mind in the order in which they fall, let us trace the pattern” to any of her fictional works (161). What does this reveal?

The final sentence of Woolf’s essay is perhaps its most inscrutable. Why might Woolf choose to personify fiction as a woman?

In what respect does Woolf’s essay demonstrate the “natural delight in humour and comedy” that she associates with the English (163)?