"The Death of the Moth" by Virginia Woolf is barely a thousand words long — yet it remains one of the most studied essays in English.
Woolf watches a day moth flutter against a windowpane. She observes its energy, then watches as it struggles and dies. In this tiny death, she sees the force that animates all living things.
Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) was a central figure in the Bloomsbury Group. Her novels include Mrs Dalloway and Jacob's Room.