Upon its publication, "Kew Gardens" enjoyed modest praise. In 1919, the Times Literary Supplement published an unsigned review of "Kew Gardens," praising the story for its strange beauty and atmosphere. Since then, the story has remained a favorite of Woolf's short fiction. In the 1970s, literary attention on Woolf revived and intensified. In 1985, Susan Dick edited The Complete Shorter Fiction of Virginia Woolf, which includes "Kew Gardens."

The general critical attention paid to Woolf has produced articles dedicated to "Kew Gardens." In "Pursuing 'It' Through 'Kew Gardens"' of 1982, Edward Bishop addresses what he calls Woolf's capture of "the essence of the natural and the human world of the garden." Bishop's essay provides a clear summary of the story's critical history, from the Times Literary Supplement through subsequent critics who attempted to account for the story's atmospheric quality by exploring how language relates to life experience, to...