Virginia Woolf, "The Common Reader" (1925) (Full text)
THE COMMON READER
BY VIRGINIA WOOLF
“. . . I rejoice to concur with the common reader; for by the common sense of readers, uncorrupted by literary prejudices, after all the
refinements of subtlety and the dogmatism of learning, must be generally decided all claim to poetical honors.”
DR. JOHNSON, Life of Gray.
New York
HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY
COPYRIGHT, 1925, BY
HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY, INC.
TO
LYTTON STRACHEY
Some of these papers appeared originally in the _Times Literary
Supplement_ and the _Dial_. I have to thank the Editors for allowing me
to reprint them here; some are based upon articles written for various
newspapers, while others appear now for the first time.