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This book brings together Virginia Woolf´s essays and book reviews on Russian literature; her unpublished reading notes on Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, and Turgenev; and new and insightful scholarly commentary concerning her response to each of the major Russian writers.

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Introduction: Russophilia PART I: DOSTOEVSKY - ´THE DIM AND POPULOUS UNDERWORLD´ The Possessed - holograph reading notes (1928) On The Possessed , from ´The Psychologists,´ in ´Phases of Fiction´ - Holograph Draft (1928) PART II: CHEKHOV - ´AN ASTONISHING SENSE OF FREEDOM´´Tchekhov on Pope´ - Holograph Draft (1925) ´Tchekhov on Pope´ - Typescript ´The Rape of the Lock´ - Holograph Reading Notes (1925) PART III: TOLSTOY - ´GENIUS IN THE RAW´ Anna Karenina I - Holograph Reading Notes (1909-1914?) Anna Karenina II - Holograph Reading Notes War and Peace - Holograph Reading Notes (1928-1929) PART IV: TURGENEV - ´A PASSION FOR ART´ Turgenev´s Fiction - Holograph Reading Notes (1933) Conclusion - ´everything is the proper stuff of fiction´

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"Rare are the scholarly studies that combine timeliness, impressive originality, and acutely precise and detailed analysis with a gently reassuring sense that we are not so much engaged in ´criticism´ as being invited to read over a writer´s shoulder and catch the very passions and wonder that they might have felt as they read. What a delight then to come at last upon Roberta Rubenstein´s Virginia Woolf and the Russian Point of View." - Woolf Studies Annual

"Rubenstein´s readings and the discussions are never other than subtle, perceptive, and persuasive." - Virginia Woolf Bulletin

"A scrupulous and illuminating exploration of Virginia Woolf´s long and deep engagement with early-twentieth-century ´Russophilia,´ Rubenstein´s new study examines the impact of such major figures as Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, and Turgenev on both Woolf´s critical theory and her aesthetic practice. The book will be welcomed not only by Woolf scholars but, more generally, by students and theorists of modernism and narrative." - Sandra M. Gilbert, Distinguished Professor Emerita, University of California, Davis

"In this much needed study of the ´imaginative residue of the Russian writers´ in Virginia Woolf´s thought and work, Rubenstein convincingly shows how reading and re-reading Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, and Turgenev at crucial times in her career affected Woolf´s development and evolution as a modernist. Thorough consideration of cultural forces, close readings of numerous texts both British and Russian, and meticulous research inform this clearly written argument, and as a bonus, Rubenstein invites us into Woolf´s workshop by providing well-footnoted transcriptions of all the available reading notes, drafts, and typescripts on the Russians in the archives. What a valuable contribution to Woolf studies!" - Beth Rigel Daugherty, Otterbein College and co-editor of Approaches to Teaching Woolf´s To the Lighthouse

"Virginia Woolf and the Russian Point of View is distinguished by its clarity, elegance of prose, lack of jargon, and careful analysis of possible Russian influence on Woolf´s fiction. Readers also gain an introduction to individual Russian texts through Rubenstein´s eyes as she trains her gaze on these texts as if looking over Woolf´s shoulder." - Ruth O. Saxton, Professor of English, Mills College

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