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Rating: 
Summary: Simply beautiful
Review: Of all of Virginia's diaries (there are five volumes), volumes 3 and 4 are perhaps the most interesting, if only because they span the period in which she wrote her classics such as Orlando, To The Lighthouse, and The Waves (which itself literally spans the period between Vol 3 and Vol 4.)If you read the collected Diaries and Woman Of Letters by Phyllis Rose, you will gain a vital series of insights into the life and thoughts of this most haunting of female writers. Whenever I think of Virginia, I always think of the lines from "Vincent" by Don Maclean... This world was never meant
for one as beautiful as you... If you have never read any Virginia Woolf, I would respectfully suggest you rent a copy of Sally Potter's Orlando. While Sally takes artistic license with the novel, she has created a very sympathetic work of Art. This diary above all gives you many insights into her thought processes and her writing career, including her reactions to the publication of her works and their reception by the public and the sub-species known as Critics. Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Sublime writing
Review: Woolf is fascinating, even when describing the most mundane details of daily life. Her writing style is as beautiful here as in her fiction, and so the diary is well worth reading for that alone. Plus, nearly every page contains a reference to Lytton Strachey, Dora Carrington, or some other Bloomsbury luminary. She isn't always completely truthful or straightforward, but she is always supremely entertaining. However, despite a number of very helpful footnotes, the editor cannot provide explanations and clarifications for every entry, so it helps to be somewhat familiar with Woolf's life before reading her diaries.
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