Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown

The essay was written in 1923, and in 1924 it was read to the Heretics, Cambridge. The essay is a polemical piece that attempts to go beyond Arnold Bennett’s thesis that character is the essence of novel writing, and his too easy conclusion as to why the young writers have failed to create credible characters. Woolf argues for the importance of character (“Mrs. Brown”) and the duties of readers and writers.