Street Haunting: A London Adventure;Including the Essay 'Evening Over Sussex: Reflections in a Motor Car'

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e decide espairecer percorrendo vários locais icónicos da capital inglesa como Oxford Street, a Strand e as margens do Tamisa. Farsi prendere per mano da Virginia Woolf e seguirla - quando si riesce - nel mondo della letteratura, passando da Jane Austen ai problemi derivanti dal leggere gli autori russi in traduzione, imparando Come dobbiamo leggere un libro e riflettendo sullo sviluppo del romanzo negli Stati Uniti, oppure passeggiando per le strade di Londra alla ricerca di una matita e della visione di scorci di vita cittadina, è un piacere enorme. L'acutezza del pensiero e della visione dell'Autrice è fenomenale, e lo stile è magistrale. Purtroppo, ma la colpa è del lettore, non sempre si riesce a seguirla, soprattutto perché non si conoscono gli autori e i testi di cui parla. La stella mancante è imputabile al procurato senso di ignoranza e conseguente imbarazzo. That illusion of a world so shaped that it echoes every groan, of human beings so tied together by common needs and fears that a twitch at one wrist jerks another, where however strange your experience other people have had it too, where however far you travel in your own mind someone has been there before you - is all an illusion. We do not know our own souls, let alone the souls of others. Human beings do not go hand in hand the whole stretch of the way. There is a virgin forest in each; a snowfield where even the print of birds' feet is unknown. Here we go alone, and like it better so. Always to have sympathy, always to be accompanied, always to be understood would be intolerable.” I liked the third essay “Craftmanship” about as much; I just looove essays about writing, and deconstructing language and art. I feel certain I am going mad again. I feel we can't go through another one of those terrible times. And I shan't recover this time. I begin to hear voices and I can't concentrate. So I am doing what seems the best thing to do. You have given me the greatest possible happiness. You have been in every way all that anyone could be. I don't think two people could have been happier till this terrible disease came. I can't fight any longer. I know that I am spoiling your life, that without me you could work. And you will I know. You see I can't even write this properly. I can't read. What I want to say is I owe all the happiness of my life to you. You have been entirely patient with me and incredibly good. I want to say that – everybody knows it. If anybody could have saved me it would have been you. Everything has gone from me but the certainty of your goodness. I can't go on spoiling your life any longer.

Virginia Woolf was born in London in 1882. After her father's death in 1904 Virginia and her sister, the painter Vanessa Bell, moved to Bloomsbury and became the centre of ‘The Bloomsbury Group’. This informal collective of artists and writers exerted a powerful influence over early twentieth-century British culture. The Mark on the Wall also gives an image of the author, this time at home. It reads like a journal entry as she muses idly about the strange round object across the room. At the end of the essay, it's revealed to be a snail...a symbol - like moths, colorful flowers, and mahogany sideboards - that appear in several of the other essays as well. As well as what is already documented, there are the family stories. As children, we ate our meals on the large kitchen table where the Woolfs started the Hogarth Press (the press on which they published The Waste Land in 1923) and the wooden table still stands in my parents' kitchen. I loved my father's anecodotes of his uncle and aunt: how Leonard invited Tom Eliot for lunch and "all he gave me was a bag of chips and a bottle of ginger beer"; how Virginia referred to my father as "the boy with the sloping nose"; how Leonard was so careful that he used newspaper instead of lavatory paper at home; how Virginia likened Eliot to "a great toad with jewelled eyes"; how she described Leonard, in letters announcing her engagement, as "a penniless Jew".The essay is notable for its vivid descriptions and Woolf's stream-of-consciousness style of writing, which allows her to explore the thoughts and impressions that arise during her walk. Street Haunting” is about the joy of walking through the city streets of London. The essay follows her taking a walk to buy a pencil in the streets of London. The errand is an excuse for her to traverse the streets of London to escape the domesticity of her home. Woolf decides that she needs to take an excursion through the streets of London with the pretext of needing a pencil. It’s really just an excuse to escape her room and solitude. The ideal time for a walk in London is in the winter evening. There’s no heat to hide from in the shade, and one can take their time ambling along. By joining the vast multitude of pedestrians, one becomes anonymous. Street Haunting Essay Summary By Virginia Woolf-Through her lyrical prose, Woolf captures the essence of the city, painting vivid pictures of its streets, shops, and foggy atmospheres. She intertwines her observations with imaginative musings on the lives of the people she encounters, delving into their thoughts and emotions. In doing so, she emphasizes the interconnectedness of individuals and the endless stories that unfold in an urban landscape. Rebecca Solnit, The Solitary Stroller and The City, Wanderlust: A History of Walking (Penguin: 2001)

Street Haunting Essay Summary By Virginia Woolf-Throughout the essay, Woolf interweaves personal reflections and philosophical musings. She contemplates the nature of reality and the complexity of human perception, emphasizing the subjectivity of experience. She also reflects on the role of gender in public spaces, touching on the restrictions placed on women’s movements and the liberating aspects of anonymity in the city.It is not surprising then, that throughout the intervening century and a half, numerous modern and contemporary writers have explored the iconic image of the flaneur, from Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway to Teju Cole’s Open City. In these works, the act of wandering a city often becomes a journey of self-discovery and inward reflection. Finally, we have the shortest essay, The Death of the Moth. Watching a moth beat against a window on a beautiful day, the narrator is moved to pity for the insignificant life before her, and then by the insignificant death. A collection of short stories and essays; one of which was the best I HAVE EVER READ : Street haunting. Absolutely stunning. Throughout my reading I didn't stop wondering how someone can reach such literary perfection. I feel like I am slowly immersing myself into Woolf's world and her stream of consciousness style. I also read some scraps of the French translated version that I had within reach -available under the title " Au hasard des rues - Une aventure londonienne "- and I loved the translation.