London Scenes

London Scenes compiles six chronicles in which Virginia Woolf confirms her passion for her hometown. Virginia paints a portrait of the 1930s by observing the enchantment of modern London. By shifting to the perspectives of both great men and ordinary citizens, the author offers an original, clear, and compelling vision of the organic movement of the streets. Initially published as five narratives—written between 1931 and 1932—this volume adds a chronicle discovered in the library of the University of Sussex in 2005. It's as if Virginia were taking the reader on a tour: she begins in the London docks, then migrates to the bustling street vendors of Oxford Street, continuing with a curious tour of the addresses of great men—in search of illustrious writers. There's a contemplation of St. Paul's and Westminster Cathedrals, and a visit to Keats's house in Hampstead. Finally, the gaze focuses on the typical figure of the English middle-class woman, for Ivo Barroso, “the vision of a microcosm representative of an entire nationality”.