Product Description

MY PENGUIN.
BOOKS BY THE GREATS, COVERS BY YOU.
With art quality paper and a naked front cover, now you can make this cover
whatever you want it to be.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2268 in Books
• Published on: 2000-06-01
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Synopsis
This book comes with introduction and notes by Deborah Parsons, University of Birmingham. 'I am writing to a rhythm and not to a plot', Virginia Woolf stated of her eighth novel, "The Waves". Widely regarded as one of her greatest and most original works, it conveys the rhythms of life in synchrony with the cycle of nature and the passage of time. Six children - Bernard, Susan, Rhoda, Neville, Jinny and Louis - meet in a garden close to the sea, their voices sounding over the constant echo of the waves that roll back and forth from the shore. The subsequent continuity of these six main characters, as they develop from childhood to maturity and follow different passions and ambitions, is interspersed with interludes from the timeless and unifying chorus of nature.In pure stream-of-consciousness style, Woolf presents a cross-section of multiple yet parallel lives, each marked by the disintegrating force of a mutual tragedy. "The Waves" is her searching exploration of individual and collective identity, and the observations and emotions of life, from the simplicity and surging optimism of youth to the vacancy and despair of middle-age.

From the Inside Flap
Tracing the lives of a group of six friends, The Waves follows
their development from childhood to youth and middle age. While their
individual achievements and disappointments form its narrative, this novel
is most remarkable for the rich poetic language that conveys the inner
lives of its characters: their aspirations, their triumphs and regrets,
their awareness of unity and isolation. Separately and together, they query
the relationship of past to present and the meaning of life itself, in a
haunting, atmospheric and sensuous exploration of the complexities of human
experience.

About the Author
Virginia Woolf was born in London in 1882, the daughter of Sir Leslie Stephen, first editor of The Dictionary of National Biography. From 1915, when she published her first novel, The Voyage Out, Virginia Woolf maintained an astonishing output of fiction, literary criticism, essays and biography. In 1912 she married Leonard Woolf, and in 1917 they founded The Hogarth Press. Virginia Woolf suffered a series of mental breakdowns throughout her life, and on 28 March 1941 she committed suicide.

Customer Reviews

minor genius
I used to love the work of woolf but sadly recently i have begun to find her quite irritating. This is without doubt her best book, it is a perfect little prism-a delicacy. But sometimes it seems to me that her language has absolutely no poetic density, or she intertextualises in a rather obvious fashion which doesn't add to her style. This is a book that one can fall in love with for a while, but it becomes apparent eventually that it is insubstantial- that is compared with other modernists of the period. However, it would be a good introduction to proust to read this- someone vastly superior to woolf who also had something she lacks- a sense of humour.

I was, but not now.
Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf?
She was an author I had put off reading for some time now, for reasons I'm not sure I fully understand, but having finally got around to reading her once, I'm looking forward to a second chance.
For the first time in a long time, I have found myself shocked by a book. By the style as well as the substance. I remember an old friend describing the first time he heard 'Sunshine of your love' by Cream in the sixties and how he thought 'I didn't know you could do that, make that sound with a guitar'. Reading this book shocked me out of the complacency of what a novel could be or achieve.
In a stream of consciousness narrative, echoing the tide's waxing and waning over a single day, the novel follows the life of six friends from childhood to old age. It's a novel of feeling and sound, emotive more than cognitive. Poignant, halcyonic, melancholic - like it's author. A wonderful poetic gift that needs to be felt. A book to return to again and again.

cutting and revolutionary
This is the first virginia woolf book that I have had the fortune to read, and I must comment that I was blown away by it's fantastically original style. It reads to me as a beautiful at times haunting long poem, that never ceases to enage the reader. The story is based around 7 individuals and documents their lives from children to adults. The book can be a little confusing at times due to the nature of it's content, but the sheer beauty of the words carries it through it's weaker moments. So lovely I might even read it again.