Product Description

A woman gazes at a mark on a wall and ponders the vagaries of thought and opinion; a succession of couples are caught up with nostalgia for their past as they stroll among the vibrant flowers of Kew Gardens; a heron soars high above cities and towns, lakes and mountains, whilst below, life continues in all its mundanity; and blue and green are given their expression in words. Monday or Tuesday is a brilliant and striking series of impressions, written in Woolf's characteristic lyrical - and startling - prose.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #826116 in Books
• Published on: 2003-09-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 88 pages

From the Publisher
Only single-volume edition available

From the Author
When I first came to Virginia Woolf’s novels, I confess I found them frustrating. Having grown up in a feminist household, with at least two copies of A Room of One’s Own, I had always looked forward to exploring her fiction. Yet when I did, so much of it seemed rather tightly controlled (even the stream-of-consciousness parts of the narrative) and character-driven. I longed for the excitement, the arrogance, the playfulness, the ideas of her best non-fiction and critical work. I abandoned the novels, returned to them, and abandoned them again several times.
Perhaps this collection is the missing link. It has the excitement in abundance, intermingling with Woolf’s usual leitmotifs: domesticity, tea, lumps of sugar, gloves, layers, interruptions, dots, dashes, thoughts that bleed into one another like colours, making new thoughts. And always war. It is poignant to note the many references in this text to the First World War, knowing how Woolf would react to the Second. Perhaps this is another important link with Woolf and her work. War, as we are learning all over again, is terrifying: a backdrop that, once in place, cannot be changed.- From the Foreword by Scarlett Thomas

About the Author
Most famous for her novels Mrs Dalloway and To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf (1882 - 1941) is one of foremost innovative writers of the twentieth century. Scarlett Thomas is one of the most exciting young writers on the contemporary fiction scene. Her works include Bright Young Things (2001) and Going out (2002)

Customer Reviews

Brilliant expositions of Woolf's theory
These short 'sketches' are particularly useful examples of Woolf's narrative theory which can be applied to her [more famous] novels. 'A Mark on the Wall' exhibits many of her ideas on history and narrative, male versus female perspectives, temporality and crossing boundaries. They show how Woolf is propelled as a writer by a desire to reach greater empathy with the previously ignored or unknown aspects of consciousness which have been forced into the background. The themes of isolation and protection can be paralleled with different perceptions (all of which are 'limited' in their own way), but most of all with female writerly identity.