Awesome Author

Beautiful pieces of work become famous for a reason. "The Death of the Moth", an essay by Virginia Woolf, has stayed in my mind for long after I have read it. With astounding description and creative syntax, she truly does deserve to be called "one of the greatest twentieth-century writers".

She creates a whimsical tone (without any winking!) of delight when she describes the moth as "a tiny bead of pure life", "(decked) with down and feathers", and "dancing... zigzagging". Her word choice in that sentence- and, yes, all of those examples came from one sentence- can make any literary fanatic swoon. With plenty of figurative language, her description of  nearly everything is pleasing to imagine, too. The "rooks", or crows, are compared to a large net with "thousands of black knots" that "sank slowly down upon the trees" in an intricate simile, evoking a sense of peace. She compares the struggling moth to a "machine, that has stopped momentarily" to convey her sense of indifference at the onset of his death, too. She, also, draws wonderful parallels from the moth's life to her own. Though it might be morbid, her claims of "Nothing I knew had any chance against death" and "O yes... death is stronger than I am" are relatable and relevant statements even for today, seventy years after publication.

Right up there with Vladimir Nabokov, author of Lolita, and Jodi Picoult, author of My Sister's Keeper, Nineteen Minutes, and more, Virginia Woolf has found herself a place among my favorite authors.