Illusion of Reality and Fiction in Henry James and Virginia Woolf

Abstract

The paper presents the critical perspectives on fiction writing shaped by Henry James and his follower Virginia Woolf. Referring to James’s essay “The Art of Fiction” and Woolf’s essay “Modern Fiction”, the study focuses on their common view that a good novel should provide the reader with a sense of reality and that the fundamental principle for novel writing should be the writer’s freedom. After giving a thorough insight into the theories of James and Woolf, the paper reveals some strategies the two novelists used while creating their own fiction. Namely, the illustrations concern the centrality of individual consciousness in The Portrait of a Lady and Mrs Dalloway, and the choice of contemporary cities for the setting of The Ambassadors and Mrs Dalloway