Virginia Woolf: The Major NovelsVirginia Woolf (1882-941) is one of the most interesting writers of our century. In this introductory book, John Batchelor tells the story of her life and writing career, highlighting the important aspects of Woolf's temperament: her passion, her learning, her acute intelligence, her lesbianism, her self-absorption. He discusses the works, devoting separate chapters to the five major novels: Jacob's Room, with its highly ironic celebration of masculinity; Mrs Dalloway, with its odd time structures and pointed observation of 1920s London society; To the Lighthouse, which can be read as an elegy for Woolf's own family as well as a great work of modernism; The Waves, extending the narrative methods of its predecessors; and Between the Acts, Woolf's complex satire of the Condition-of-England novel. In addition, Professor Batchelor looks at Woolf's uneasy relation to modernism and the question of her feminism. This book, equipped with a chronology and guide to recommended further reading, is an ideal companion for students and new readers of Woolf. |
Contents
Method | 29 |
Jacobs Room | 56 |
Mrs Dalloway | 73 |
To the Lighthouse 191 | 91 |
The Waves | 114 |
Between the Acts | 132 |
Conclusion | 147 |
Common terms and phrases
Acts appear artist becomes beginning Bell Bernard Bloomsbury called Cambridge central chapter characters circle Clarissa close complete consciousness course created Dalloway death diary dramatised essays experience expresses eyes fact father feels felt Fiction figures friends give hand Hogarth human Jacob's Room James kind Leonard Woolf light Lighthouse Lily literary lives London looked major male marriage mean method mind Miss moment narrative nature never Night notes novel novelist Orlando painting paragraph party passage past Percival pleasure present Press published quoted Ramsay reader reading reality referred relationship seems seen sense Septimus sexual sitting social Stephen structure suggested things Thoby Stephen thought tion turn University Victorian Virginia Woolf voice Voyage Waves whole Window woman women writing young