The Waves
Back of the Book
Set on the coast of England against the vivid background of the sea, The Waves introduces six characters—three men and three women—who are grappling with the death of a beloved friend, Percival. Instead of describing their outward expressions of grief, Virginia Woolf draws her characters from the inside, revealing them through their thoughts and interior soliloquies. As their understanding of nature’s trials grows, the chorus of narrative voices blends together in miraculous harmony, remarking not only on the inevitable death of individuals but on the eternal connection of everyone. The novel that most epitomizes Virginia Woolf’s theories of fiction in the working form, The Waves is an amazing book very much ahead of its time. It is a poetic dreamscape, visual, experimental, and thrilling.
Why You Should Read It
Woolf’s grief is carried through the inherent musicality of her prose. A modernist masterpiece unlike any other, Woolf’s kaleidoscopic arrangement of streams of consciousness within the different people in a group of friends as tragedy strikes stands as a clear pioneer for that formulation of plot that is thriving in literary fiction today—the idyllic coming of age shattered by realizations of mortality. As Woolf’s most ambitious novel, and in a way her most personal, The Waves is accordingly quite a task to comprehend. With its convoluted narrative structure, The Waves presents a challenge to the Woolf reader but is entirely worth it for the beauty of its prose alone.
Memorable Passage
But for pain words are lacking. There should be cries, cracks, fissures, whiteness passing over chintz covers, interference with the sense of time, of space; the sense also of extreme fixity in passing objects; and sounds very remote and then very close; flesh being gashed and blood spurting, a joint suddenly twisted - beneath all of which appears something very important, yet remote, to be just held in solitude.
About the Author
Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) was a pioneering English writer and one of the most influential figures in the modernist literary movement. Her profound contributions to literature include novels such as Mrs Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, and Orlando. Woolf is celebrated for her innovative narrative techniques, including the stream-of-consciousness style, which delves deep into the inner thoughts and emotions of her characters. Beyond her literary achievements, Woolf was a central figure in the Bloomsbury Group, an intellectual circle that included luminaries like E.M. Forster and John Maynard Keynes. Woolf's feminist perspectives, articulated in essays such as "A Room of One's Own," remain influential in discussions of gender and literature. Her exploration of the complexities of human consciousness, the passage of time, and the nuances of everyday life make Virginia Woolf worth knowing for her enduring impact on literature and her role in shaping the trajectory of modernist writing in the 20th century.
Further Reading
Poetic Brilliance in the New Novel by Mrs. Woolf by Louis Kronenberger, NYT
Where Virginia Woolf Listened to the Waves by Katharine Smyth, The Paris Review
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