
"The Waves" by Virginia Woolf is a poetic and experimental novel that follows the lives of six friends from childhood to old age. The book explores the interiority of the characters, their perceptions of reality, themselves, and others. Woolf's writing style is described as poetry in prose, with no rules, punctuation, or paragraphs, portraying pure sensations, disarrayed and irrational thoughts, and an explosion of feelings. The characters' journeys are depicted as complex and emotional, reflecting on themes of innocence, disappointment, regret, and the transient nature of beauty and life itself.
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Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings
Content warnings include themes of suicide, mental health struggles, grief, and existential despair.
From The Publisher:
Through a series of connected monologues, The Waves tells the story of six very different friends - Bernard, Louis, Neville, Jinny, Susan and Rhoda - as they progress from childhood to middle age. Interspersed with evocative descriptions of the seaside at different times of day, the poignant personal histories coalesce into a poetic tapestry of human experience.
A commercial and critical success when it was first published in 1931, and now considered by some to be Virginia Woolf's most ambitious novel, showcasing her Modernist narrative techniques at their finest, The Waves casts a visionary and lyrical light on everyday life.
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2 comment(s)
Been wanting to read The Waves by Virginia Woolf for sometime now but wanted to wait for the perfect moment as I was so sure I would love it. And of course I did! Virginia Woolf was one of the most talented writers out there and this novel flows almost like a song, it's so poetic, yet it's has depth. It's a novel you need to dedicate some time to but it's worth it in the end. I starting to run low on unread works by her and that makes me sad, but luckily I'm not completely done yet. This was a great book to finish my Goodreads challenge this year!
I really want to love Virginia Woolf. But I don't. Her writing is exhausting and I just don't get it.
About the Author:
VIRGINIA WOOLF (1882-1941) was one of the major literary figures of the twentieth century. An admired literary critic, she authored many essays, letters, journals, and short stories in addition to her groundbreaking novels, including Mrs. Dalloway, To The Lighthouse, and Orlando.
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