How Should One Read a Book?

Narrative refers to the form and style in which a story is told. Woolf and the literary modernist movement explored the experimental potential of narratives, breaking the traditional boundaries of form, style, and meaning. Woolf draws direct attention to these possibilities when she imagines how Defoe, Austen, and Hardy would portray the same scene. Although Woolf chooses traditional writers, her focus on the differences between them highlights the narrative process as an essential, self-expressive part of the writer’s craft, with countless possibilities.

Antagonism is an opposition or, used more colloquially, a dislike. Woolf uses this word when noting readers’ instinct away from certain writing styles or genres. While this opposing force is difficult and sometimes impossible to overcome, Woolf says, “trial is always worth making” (9). This word is a nod towards the respect that Woolf has for the balance between individual taste and self-improvement. She acknowledges that certain works will naturally repel certain readers, but she urges readers to try nonetheless. Further, she says, sometimes this initial struggle leads to an even greater result.

A hybrid is a mixture of two or more elements. Woolf uses this term to describe the genre of biographies and memoirs, in order to express her belief that these literary forms include elements of fact and fiction. Woolf considers them hybridized because, although the scrupulous writer will seek to limit themselves to fact, it is inescapable that their writing will not be informed by personal opinion and imagination. The term “hybrid” is also a nod to the essay’s natural imagery, especially the combination of human endeavor and natural progression; hybrids are plants and animals bred by humans to combine characteristics.