Saving fleeting snapshots, astutely observing strangers, recording meticulous detail: modernist author Virginia Woolf knows how to capture a moment. In ‘Kew Gardens’ and ‘An Unwritten Novel’, everyday life becomes a powerful stage for dreaming and storytelling. Woolf’s trademark stream-of-consciousness writing style is showcased in ‘The Mark on the Wall’ where a nameless narrator zeroes in on their environment, becoming more and more unnerved by a seemingly inexplicable dark stain.

‘The New Dress’ and ‘The Looking Glass’ are brilliantly observed portraits of a few choice instants. In the former, the party dress Mabel Waring decides to wear leaves her feeling uncertain and doubtful, but she resolves to change for the better. In each of these seven stories, Woolf explores the nuanced events which make up daily life and maps how they intertwine with our thoughts and emotions.

This series of pocket-sized paperbacks celebrates the art of the short story and marks Macmillan Collector’s Library’s 10th anniversary. Each contains a curated selection of short stories from a literary giant: Katherine Mansfield, Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Allen Poe, Oscar Wilde, Jane Austen, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Alice Dunbar Nelson, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Rabindranath Tagore.