Woolfs own social criticism is expressed in the language of observation rather than in direct commentary, since for her, fiction is a contemplative, not an active art. She describes phenomena and provides materials for a judgment about society and social issues; it is the readers work to put the observations together and understand the coherent point of view behind them. As a moralist, Woolf works by indirection, subtly undermining officially accepted mores, mocking, suggesting, calling into question, rather than asserting, advocating, bearing witness: hers is the satirists art.
Woolfs literary models were acute social observers like Chekhov and Chaucer. As she put it in The Common Reader, It is safe to say that not a single law has been framed or one stone set upon another because of anything Chaucer said or wrote; and yet, as we read him, we are absorbing morality at every pore. Like Chaucer, Woolf chose to understand as well as to judge, to know her society root and branch a decision crucial in order to produce art rather than polemic.
1. Which of the following would be the most appropriate title for the text?
[A] Poetry and Satire as Influences on the Novels of Virginia Woolf.
[B] Virginia Woolf: Critic and Commentator on the Twentieth-Century Novel.
[C] Trends in Contemporary Reform Movements as a Key to Understanding Virginia Woolfs Novels.
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