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Between the Acts

3.68 of 5 stars 3.68 · rating details · 2,244 ratings · 115 reviews

In Woolf’s last novel, the action takes place on one summer’s day at a country house in the heart of England, where the villagers are presenting their annual pageant. A lyrical, moving valedictory.

Paperback, 228 pages

Published October 21st 1970 by Mariner Books (first published 1941)

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Apr 17, 2011 Jamie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites, read-in-2010, read-in-2011, read-in-2009

2011 Update: This is the third consecutive spring in which I've read BTA. I'll confess my reading this go-round felt less urgent (I...dare I say it?...skimmed parts of the pageant), but nevertheless increased yet again my love for this novel. Deceptively minimalist, austerely affective, Between the Acts feels somehow so apart from and so integral to Woolf's canon. The characters themselves are powerfully immediate; almost allegorical in the way Woolf employs metaphors, images, or emotions as sho...more 2011 Update: This is the third consecutive spring in which I've read BTA. I'll confess my reading this go-round felt less urgent (I...dare I say it?...skimmed parts of the pageant), but nevertheless increased yet again my love for this novel. Deceptively minimalist, austerely affective, Between the Acts feels somehow so apart from and so integral to Woolf's canon. The characters themselves are powerfully immediate; almost allegorical in the way Woolf employs metaphors, images, or emotions as shorthand for these figures (Isa and the sensation of drowning; Mrs. Swithin's prehistory; Giles' burning desire for violent action; Mrs. Manresa, the 'wild child of Nature'). They don't feel one-dimensional, though, for all this referentiality; it's almost as if they're akin to one's own index of the people one knows. This is a different kind of relationality from, say, The Waves, where the very boundaries between selves are diffuse, hardly even fluid--almost nonexistent. There's an alienating quality to BTA that doesn't permeate her other works, and perhaps that's why it so often is read as a bleak text; but I find something almost energizing about this sense of separateness, inasmuch as the entire novel is seeking an articulation for the simultaneous 'unity' and dispersal of all relationships.

At any rate, enough of my 'thoughtful' blabbering. Another fantastic experience of reading this book, with many more readings (hopefully) to come.

**

2010

When I discovered I'd be re-reading Between the Acts for my Modernism course this spring, I groaned internally and began to steel myself against the novel, once again. I read this for the first time about 2 years ago in a Woolf seminar, and found it to be an absolute chore in the way none of her other novels had been. I, like many, questioned why the hell Woolf would write such a superficial & trivial novel with the war looming so heavily before her. And if this Modernism course was invested in particular themes--heroism, experimentalism, acute interest in the seismic historical shifts of the first half of the 20th century--why weren't we reading Jacob's Room or Mrs. Dalloway or To the Lighthouse?

I was in for quite a great surprise. Since I knew from the start of the semester that I'd probably end up writing on this novel (I couldn't bear the thought of writing on Ulysses or The Waste Land, and knew *nothing* of Beckett or Djuna Barnes), I began plotting ways of coping. When the time came to read the novel, in the midst of the eye-of-the-semester's-storm, I found myself--SHOCKING--positively loving the novel. So much so that I re-read it again only days after finishing it, which is something I *never* do with books, even the ones that really pierce me.

I wholly revise my contention that the novel is superficial. In fact, now I find it to be one of Woolf's most politically cognizant novels--the pageant functions as a direct indictment of England's troublesome history, the sound & sight of the aeroplanes overhead is possibly the most disturbing moment of the novel, Giles figures as a sort of blossoming fascist who nonetheless must be incorporated into the novel's community...certainly helps to read the novel alongside Three Guineas (where Woolf suggests that the embryonic fascist is not simply a monster--but is within us). The novel's intense interest in precultural histories, "thoughts without words" & the like makes for a wonderfully philosophical read, but you never feel overburdened by abstraction; the strange ideas are presented through the characters' encounters with them, much in the way we, the readers, might likewise encounter them.

The writing left me misty-eyed and out of breath on numerous occasions (the final scene with Miss La Trobe, for example, may contain five of the best pages of prose styling in all of literature). The characters are intensely beautiful--Miss La Trobe, William Dodge, Isa Oliver, Lucy Swithin...each seems tattooed on my innards in some way (that's less grotesque than I'm describing it). Also, the fact that there's an old woman/tranny (ok, gay man) bonding session tickles my naughty bits.

Ok, I just never feel adequate when I try talking about Woolf--god knows how I felt assured enough to write a paper on the novel. It's amazing, it's incredible, it's fucking Virginia Woolf (which should pull you in, in any case). If you've already read it and hated it, give it another go. I was knocked off my feet by the novel this time around, and highly advise anyone remotely interested in Woolf to grant it a little breathing room. I'm almost tempted to read it again this summer, but I've got other Woolf on my list (The Waves--finally). Happy reading, and possibly sobbing...(less)

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Oct 06, 2008 Cat rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is beautiful. Her language and imagery are so vibrant and lush. Woolf uses the production of a meager English Village play to mix fantasy with reality.

At times, the reader is backstage at the heart of a theatrical drama where the producer and director, Miss La Trobe, feverishly wills her players to action.

Woolf not only wrote a book when creating Between The Acts, but also, developed a play complete with stage directions. I was often caught up in its plot and found myself wondering what m...more

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Sep 01, 2008 Michael rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: no one

Seriously awful.

I'm not even going to pretend to like it.

I have to discuss this book for my English class tomorrow. What can I honestly say about it? I know the hardcore kids in my class have stacks of notes they took. They will sit on the edge of their seats waiting for the moment to shoot their hand up and draw pointless analogies to other books they've read. They'll have sentences beginning with "It's interesting how..." and "It seems to me that..." I'll sit quietly and mock them in my mind.

W...more

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Feb 16, 2010 Tony rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-mainstream

Woolf, Virginia. BETWEEN THE ACTS. (1941; this ed. 2008). ****. Although I’d have to give the novel itself only three stars, the four star rating applies to this edition which provides an excellent introduction by Melba Cuddy-Keane (University of Toronto) and extensive notes to the text. To give you an idea, the novel itself is only 149 pages long. The introduction is sixty-six pages long, the appended notes take up sixty-two pages. This should give you some idea of the likely obscurity of most...more Woolf, Virginia. BETWEEN THE ACTS. (1941; this ed. 2008). ****. Although I’d have to give the novel itself only three stars, the four star rating applies to this edition which provides an excellent introduction by Melba Cuddy-Keane (University of Toronto) and extensive notes to the text. To give you an idea, the novel itself is only 149 pages long. The introduction is sixty-six pages long, the appended notes take up sixty-two pages. This should give you some idea of the likely obscurity of most of the references in this novel. This is not a novel in the usual sense. Woolf set this up as a microcosm of the world history of England from prehistoric times down to the present as represented by a pageant performed at Pointz Hall in the heart of England. The time is one day in June in 1939. Pointz Hall is owned by the Oliver family, who every year sponsors this pageant to support some local charity. This year, the profits will go towards getting electric lights for the village chapel. The pageant is composed of scenes from the history of England, beginning with the age of Chaucer, through the Victorian Era, ending with “ourselves,” i.e., the present day as represented by the audience. The pageant is suitably obscure with Woolfanistic quotes and allusions – that’s where the notes come in handy. The audience is a mixed bag composed of the local villagers, the Olivers – Isa and her husband Giles – the pastor, the woman who wrote the script for the pageant, and a variety of local lords and ladies. We, as readers, become part of the audience, and don’t much care what is really going on on stage; of course, the fictional audience doesn’t much care either. The most popular parts of the pageant are the “intervals,” where the members of the audience is free to go and get tea and cakes, or wander off with each other for conversation – though their conversations are mostly to themselves and are kind of overheard by their comopanions. We learn that the Olivers are having difficulties with each other. We learn, too, of the frustrations of some of the other female members of the audience and their quest for suitable companionship – either male or female. To say that the technique of stream-of-consciousness predominates this novel would be an understatement. What Woolf has done was to further explore that form along with a concatonation of separate character identies who end up mostly talking to themselves. After you realize that the pageant and its contents aren’t really all that important to the book, you take a break from flipping back and forth to the notes and simply read on, now realizing that you are now seated in one of the wooden chairs in the back of the group, listening in on what the audience members are saying. Lots of comments occur during the pageant, but these are mostly from the older members of the audience who are hard of hearing or just remembered something from their past that the pageant reminded them of. As we approach the end of the pageant, the group finally breaks up when a group of war planes flies overhead. We are left with the sponsors, Isa and Giles, and the story they tell as the last act of the novel. Woolf’s novels are never easy reads, but this one – her last – is especially complex. Recommended.(less)

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Apr 09, 2012 Irina rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Irina by: Christian

Intr-un fel, mi-a amintit de ,,Sarpele", de Eliade. Un fel de banal familial combinat cu mister si final enigmatic. In niciuna nu ai certitudinea unui final, sfarsitul nu exista.
Este scrisa destul de posac, cu mici fragmente reverberante in care autoarea parca isi da ultima suflare, in care isi arunca ultima speranta - dar si aceea inconfundabil de trista.
Se prezinta un real bizar, o taina a vietii, care insa nu e prezentata pentru a fi deslusita, ,,e pusa in lumina soarelui" si lasata pentru...more

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Dec 31, 2011 Laura rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: i-ll-read-it-again

I loved it. I knew I would...I've held back from reading it because it's the last Virginia Woolf novel that I had left to read...this made me feel terribly sad...even though I can re-read all of them again, it's the loss of "not knowing" and knowing that this is the last one she wrote that made me not read it for so long. The gorgeous, spare images, yet written with a depth that is by no means simplistic caught my imagination, and the beauty of her rhythm...she always gets me thinking. I was ver...more

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Jun 17, 2007 Casper rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: novel

The second novel I've read by Woolf. It's the last one she wrote before committing suicide and one of her shortest. Using a lot of modernist techniques it also illustrates Woolf's feeling for language. With a short and economic style she can create moments of beautiful literature in this novel. The point of Between the Acts is this use of language. Forget the plot, read and reread the lines.

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Feb 09, 2013 Julie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book had both good and some not so good qualities to it, but as always, I found myself reading on due to Woolf's writing style and writing style alone.

I loved the writing in the book - although with Virginia Woolf, how can you not love her writing. I always find I can lose myself in her style and narrative no matter what book of hers I pick up, and this one was no exception. This particular story was both good and bad. I like the main idea behind the story, the characters were well done, e...more

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Oct 01, 2012 Hao Guang rated it 4 of 5 stars

A village gathers to watch a pastiche play of scenes harking back to England's long history, all this in the shadow of WWII. The reader is also the intended audience, and we are also treated to the 'orts, scraps and fragments' of human existence. In one day, the history of the entire (British) world is performed, alluded to. Narrative perspective darts in and out of various characters. And in the midst of all this is Miss LaTrobe, the playwright, who nobody understands and who, it seems, has ult...more

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Feb 22, 2010 Emily rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2010

So this book took me forever to finish it! And not because I did not enjoy it (because I did), but because I was so busy with exams, and college and reading enormous amounts of papers to get through! But anyway, today I had some free time and finished in about an hour the eighty pages I got left.

So, yeah, it was pretty dense, which kind of made it difficult to get into it at first, as often happens with Woolf's works. I felt I didn't know the characters until around page sixty or seventy. I thin...more So this book took me forever to finish it! And not because I did not enjoy it (because I did), but because I was so busy with exams, and college and reading enormous amounts of papers to get through! But anyway, today I had some free time and finished in about an hour the eighty pages I got left.

So, yeah, it was pretty dense, which kind of made it difficult to get into it at first, as often happens with Woolf's works. I felt I didn't know the characters until around page sixty or seventy. I think Woolf's works are full of subtleties and delicate irony, which makes them often seem quite inaccesible. So I try not to panic and just flow through the prose, even if I feel I'm losing something that's escaping between my fingers, at least I'm enoying the experience, I'm getting to know the characters and the environments. Then, when I get to be deep enough into the story, I may look around for more subtle details, trying not to break that fragile spell that may dissapear any time.

Whilst "Between the Acts" hasn't been my favourite work by her, it's definitely got something the others didn't. Perhaps, I think, it's that this time Virginia focuses more on society and social relationships from the outside (their actions, the things they do to relate to each other in a fully organized society) than on the inside (feelings and thoughts but not much action). Also, the play seemed pretty irrelevant at first, but as I writer myself I think it is such a good idea to, kind, of, I don't know, create that kind of metaphor when the real life is the actual play and everybody is playing their role (although they all feel opressed somewhat, as wee see in the main characters, Giles, Lady Manresa, Isa and William, and even the playwriter, who feel so misunderstood, Ms. La Trobe) and the play is the actual "between the act", that is, a mere stop from playing, a rest to watch something different. And then! The ending of the play! Couldn't have been better, definitely! To make them see themselves reflected off a mirror, oh my god, that is why she's so good and even if you've been halfway trhough the book thinking nothing makes any sense (at least for me, me being not native and having just begun to learn English history for the first time at college I sometimes got lost in cultural references, feeling I was missing something, though perhaps it's also beautiful to interpret it from a different culture, to see it with new eyes), then you get that -which may be a kind of present for having gotten so far and having trusted her. (and the ending sentence. beyond awesome!).

So as I said, this isn't one of my favourite books by her, but it's definitely worth reading in order to understand a bit better the characters of that age and Virginia herself (I think she expresses many of her discontentments towards her life here. It's curious that she actually wrote it some time before dying -comitting suicide). Many topics she subtly mentions are actually crutial -Manresa feeling stupid and then thinking she's superior because she does enjoy life in the natural way, Isa so tired of wearing the mask of the stupid and nice housewife, Giles thinking he can be unfaithful to Isa but she can't, uncommunication in marriage, hidden emotions in order to be polite, and just many of them could apply to our times! It's a good book to think over, though it seems that in the end, everything vanishes (as what happens with the play, that makes the audience think for a while but they actually end up forgetting about it -or at least trying).

It doesn't, really. Leaves a good taste in your mouth.(less)

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Jul 23, 2007 Paige rated it 4 of 5 stars

Probably a very often overlooked novel, because it is easy to assume it is about nothing, but there are a lot of interesting things going on here with culture and the state, particularly the role spectators play and are expected to play in cultural events inspiring nationalism or patriotism.

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Oct 13, 2011 Kristin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: classic, family, gender-issues, philosophy

An interesting final work for this author. A definite sense that she was trying to sum up her views about writing and art in this book. You sense the author's discord a bit as well, because the writing is just slightly choppy. Though I wonder if a failure to communicate significance was intended. The play was heavy-handed and ambitious, but it seems intended to be. It's harder to get to know the inner lives of the characters in this one, but I do enjoy the moments of satire. Style is radical and...more

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Jul 07, 2007 Wavegenerator rated it 4 of 5 stars

There are other Virgina Woolf books which may be more representative, but this book disturbed and stirred me more than the others with its circumspect look at the quandary of human existence.

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Jun 03, 2012 Michelle rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: classics

Few writers can craft prose like Virginia Woolf. There's a beautiful simplicity in how her sentences flow. I enjoyed this, but it's not my favorite of Woolf's books.

Through the years, through the acts... the players change, but the parts remain the same. Set at the cusp of one of the most horrific wars in history, the next act (WWII) would be just another retelling of the same story.

There was a strong sense of... stagnancy in this book. Everything felt still and futile. Isa's idle wonderings and...more

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Feb 02, 2009 Christy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Not my favourite novel(la?) by Woolf, but "Between the Acts" had its moments. Perhaps it should be somewhat excused, as it is the last book she wrote before her death in 1941, and therefore is somewhat of a draft (though her husband, Leonard Woolf, wrote she would have kept much the same). "Between the Acts" is the story of one single day ("Mrs. Dalloway" Take 2?) in a rural English village where villagers are putting on a play. All of the characters in the book speak as though they are performi...more

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Jan 30, 2013 RØB rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to RØB by: Meg Sempreora

Shelves: in-my-permanent-collection, supposed-to-have-read-it-for-school

Chalk another one up for Pancake Master on the "supposed to have read it for school" circuit! I ended up reading this one mostly on a family trip to Banff, Alberta in July. I really enjoyed the flow of it. Woolf doesn't use, or need, chapters! The way this book flows from one conversation, one occurrence, one chance meeting, one snippet of a backwoods pageant, to the next, really brings you into the action. If you can get lost in it, it's very enjoyable. Unfortunately I think it might be just di...more

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Nov 08, 2011 Jennifer rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

I love a Penguin Classic, a nice slim well designed volume... but the font in this was just horrible. Coupled with this I condemned the book to my bag which means lots of short reading sessions - not ideal for Woolf's stream of consciousness.

However, I enjoyed the book. It's almost like the posher bits of The Archers set between the wars and made poetic, especially with the pageant. Miss La Trobe is Linda Snell. Woolf's characters are feverish, over-thinking, echolalic, inattentive and deceptive...more

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Mar 02, 2009 Melissa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Honestly, I only gave this four stars because the annotations in this particular edition were thorough to the point of distracting (if you've got the same kind of OCD about endnotes that I do where you have to keep up as you go). I was flipping back and forth so much that it was easy to lose the thread of the already-incredibly-fragmented plot, so this bears rereading at a later date. If you love Woolf, you'll love her last work, compressing as it does her ellipses, her extreme compression of ex...more

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May 31, 2013 Karl Groll rated it 3 of 5 stars

The following quotes are taken from Between the Acts, by Virginia Woolf. Page numbers are provided from the paperback published by Harcourt in 1941, ISBN: 0-15-611870-X

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"Next to the kitchen, the library's always the nicest room in the house." Then she added, stepping across the threshold: "Books are the mirrors of the soul." 16

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She had givin up dealing with her figure and thus gained freedom. 42

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"That's what makes a view so sad," said Mrs. Swithin, lowering herself into the deck chair whic...more

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Mar 21, 2013 Jori Richardson rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: writer-from-england

"Between the Acts" covers one day in the lives of a group of people living in a small English countryside town. The setting is just before World War II, and they are preparing to put together their annual play.

I was expecting this book to be another "Mrs. Dalloway," and though there are similarities, this book falls flat in its simplicity, vague plot, and string of characters, while "Mrs. Dalloway" builds off of these same points. This book should not be looked at as a novel, but rather a spare...more "Between the Acts" covers one day in the lives of a group of people living in a small English countryside town. The setting is just before World War II, and they are preparing to put together their annual play.

I was expecting this book to be another "Mrs. Dalloway," and though there are similarities, this book falls flat in its simplicity, vague plot, and string of characters, while "Mrs. Dalloway" builds off of these same points. This book should not be looked at as a novel, but rather a spare description of a day's events.

The characters were slightly interesting, but I kept asking myself what the point of this book was. Perhaps to allow us a glimpse of a commoner's view on the history of England? The play was a brief exploration of the townspeople's native land through the ages, and Woolf allows us to "watch" the play while still hearing what all of the characters in the audience are commenting (often not complimentary).

However, if this is indeed what Woolf wanted the book to be about, it didn't work out all that well. I hardly remembered the subject of the plays until I flipped back through it while writing this review. The connection with English history wasn't a striking one. I think that she wanted to focus on the characters more, and yet, I never felt anything for any of them.
Isa was the only one who interested me mildly. She is a middle aged woman who is married with children, and finds herself wanting more out of life. She refers to her husband as "the father of my children," seemingly in an effort to remind herself of her duty and attachment to him. She has a crush on another man, but they never even speak to each other.

I felt that none of the characters were ever explored deeply enough to qualify this little volume as a true, character driven story.

As a result, this is a nothing-driven story, and it is only Woolf's beautiful prose that saves it. I love Virginia Woolf's writing style, and that is what kept me reading. However, even that was not up to its usual standard here.

I would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of Woolf herself, but most likely not to anyone else.(less)

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Nov 26, 2012 Jocelyn rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, read-before-i-died

Read for class.

Between the Acts is about a bunch of people watching a village play being performed in the garden of a wealthy manor. This novel is Woolf's last novel, published posthumously.

The entirety of the book happens in twenty-four hours, and to be honest I was a little unengaged with the material. I don't mean to say that I think Virginia Woolf is a boring author, not at all. I think my disinterest came from the amount of other schoolwork I need to finish; I'm pretty stressed.

I found the...more Read for class.

Between the Acts is about a bunch of people watching a village play being performed in the garden of a wealthy manor. This novel is Woolf's last novel, published posthumously.

The entirety of the book happens in twenty-four hours, and to be honest I was a little unengaged with the material. I don't mean to say that I think Virginia Woolf is a boring author, not at all. I think my disinterest came from the amount of other schoolwork I need to finish; I'm pretty stressed.

I found the plot to be a little dry, which is unusual for me because I soak up books that others find dry like a sponge. The overall message of the story wasn't clear to me, and even after thinking about it I can't tell what I was supposed to draw from it. Maybe I just don't get it?

I thought the characters were a little one-dimensional, but for a short novel of 130 pages, I understand that the main story is not on character development. What was complex, however, was the relationship aspects of the characters: Isa is married to Giles, but attracted to Dodge, who is an implied homosexual; Mrs Manresa wants to seduce Giles, but is unable to properly do so; and so on. These relationships made the characters more interesting.

I really enjoyed Woolf's prose. Her writing style falls under the styles that I like, and her word choices were impeccable. Every word was meaningful. She alluded to current affairs and past literary works, which made it a joy to read (I love literature that is full of allusions and has plenty of foot-/endnotes). Woolf's prose appears playful to me, as if she were having a great time constructing the sentences and picking the right words. Her wordplay is fun and the hinted rhymes are exciting if you like that sort of stuff -- I do. I think the prose and writing style really save this book. As disinterested as I was about the point of the story, the prose made it worthwhile reading.

This is my first Virginia Woolf book, and I will definitely be picking up her others. After all, this novel isn't even supposed to be her best.(less)

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Mar 09, 2011 Mia - rated it 5 of 5 stars

Ci sono miliardi di cose da dire su questo ultimo romanzo di Virginia Woolf, ma non riesco a fissarne neanche una.

Da leggere, e rileggere, credo, per capirne a fondo ogni immagine, ogni parola.

Parole mai messe, lì dove sono, per caso. La struttura è satura, ogni immagine è data e ripresa.

I personaggi sono presenti altrove, nei loro pensieri, nella loro mente, nei voli pindarici, nei dubbi, nelle domande, nelle frustrazioni.

I passaggi di coralità sono stupefacenti, resi sulla carta con discorsi f...more

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Apr 16, 2012 Brenden O'Donnell rated it 5 of 5 stars

I think I tried to make this novel conform to the rest of Woolf's work when I first read it. This reading, done in the context of a Modernism seminar after having read "Ulysses" and "Nightwood," has provided a more appropriate frame. Though throughout most of this reading it still felt a little more like Djuna Barnes than Woolf, once I got through to the end I was surprised how much Woolf I recognized in it.

I read it as a prophetic vision of the end of human meaning, though it's really ambiguou...more

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May 25, 2009 Nicole rated it 5 of 5 stars

Lyrical, shattered impressions come together in presenting how "dispersed are we." There is less "knowing" of characters than, say, To the Lighthouse or Mrs. Dalloway, but its extraexperimental structure has no room for that. The middle, though establishing a rhythm and language of time, is a bit of a bore... but it all comes together as the curtain reveals our present selves. A great commentary on the space&time between the two World Wars.

Favorite Parts:
He reached it in ten. There, couched...more

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Sep 24, 2008 Erik added it

This novel, the last written by Virginia Woolf before her suicide in 1941, is as Harold Bloom wrote, difficult to describe but beautifully easy to read. He also called it something of a miracle given that it was written under the gathering shadows of madness and self-immolation. I think he calls it that because of the comic touch and delicate control of a very original and experimental book.
Like Mrs. Dalloway (and a number of other modernist novels - just think of Ullyssed for example)it all tak...more This novel, the last written by Virginia Woolf before her suicide in 1941, is as Harold Bloom wrote, difficult to describe but beautifully easy to read. He also called it something of a miracle given that it was written under the gathering shadows of madness and self-immolation. I think he calls it that because of the comic touch and delicate control of a very original and experimental book.
Like Mrs. Dalloway (and a number of other modernist novels - just think of Ullyssed for example)it all takes place on a single day - a June day in 1939. And as in To the Lighthouse a major concern is over the weather - will it rain or will it be fine? The answer will determine whether the village pageant, the central action of the novel, will be played outside. It does and only rains briefly. This allows nature to play its role, the trees, the birds and especially the cows, whose bellows at one point save the play. That is the illusion dies and death enters in (at least according the play's writer Miss La Trobe). But through the cows "the whole world was filled with dumb yearning. It was the primeval voice sounding loud in the ear of the present moment." It was we read "as if Eros had planted his dart in their flanks and goaded them to fury. The cows annhilated the gap; bridged the distance; filled the emptiness and continued the emotion." This is also what Woolf expects of art, her art which bridges the gap between time periods, between classes, between disaffectd spouces, between the acts of our lives. And the whole history of England is given through the crude but perceptive pageant, and this recalls Orlando, and like Orlando it ends with the present moment, with actors wielding mirrors and glasses to reflect the audience back to themselves. I might say the novel recapitulates all her work, but it defintely feels like a limit, a point beyond which she could not go, as if she knew this was it - only madness and death remained. But the book is a triumph over such forces, a miracle wherein the poles of unity and dispersity (as she calls it) are brought together however precariously through the play and poetic language that make up the novel. Woolf was haunted by a sense that it all breaks down to "orts, scraps and fragemnts," but what she presents us is a luminous whole.
Lastly, I think Woolf was slyly writing of herself when she says of Miss La Troble the country writer: "She was an outcast. Nature had somehow set her apart from her kind. Yet she had scribbled in the margin of her manuscript: I am the slave of my audience." Before she lost herself she gave herself through what she wrote and for this gift only gratitude remains in the receptive reader.(less)

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Jul 04, 2008 Diana rated it 5 of 5 stars

I took a class on Woolf in the last semester of my third year. This was the last book we read. We had the option of taking an in-class final or writing a paper. As I had not finished much of the assigned reading, I opted for the paper. That quarter, all of my finals were done Monday, and this paper wasn't due until Friday at 5pm. I figured I'd gun this out and turn it in Wednesday at the latest. Ha. No.

Woolf never finished editing this book. It was the middle of WWII and she lost hope. She kill...more

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Jul 02, 2012 Phil rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 20th-century

I wasn't sold on this book in the early going (which may be a result of reading bits and pieces of it in a number of small sittings, rather than one long devoted sitting), but as the book got more into the pageant that makes up the main plot element I began to enjoy this a lot more. Initially I was confused by the tangle of relationships between the characters who dominate the first portion of the novel, since it didn't seem clear to me what the various characters' goals and desires were. But I...more

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Dec 04, 2009 Blake rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics

Here is Virginia Woolf at her Orlandoesque playfulness.

In a country house, somewhere in England, the residents and others prepare for a pageant, annually performed in the house grounds. It is just weeks out from WW2. The pageant, a celebration of English history, is attended by the entire local community. There, amidst the rush, the leisure and lingering, Woolf has canvas fit to serve her swirling brush.

The writing is filled with hidden meanings, many of them tucked away in seemingly innocuous r...more

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Oct 24, 2008 Nikki rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, for-class

I really, really don't like Virginia Woolf's fiction. There's a nice flow to the writing, a nice lyrical feeling, but the way she chooses to write about things seems to me pretentious and boring, and sort of... scatterbrained. I'd like to love Woolf's writing, as my favourite writer Ursula Le Guin does, but I just can't seem to connect with or get anything out of her writing. I didn't see the "point" in it, I suppose. There were bits I liked about it -- the play, for example, at the part where t...more

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Sep 13, 2011 Maíra Carvalho rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: english-lit, fiction

Between the Acts is not a book for those unaccostumed with Woolf, that is for sure. It oftens seems like an unfinished draft, with its simple plot and short length. One might not understand that the caricatural Miss La Trobe, the writer, is an alegory to Woolf herserlf, and that she is trying to think the act of writing in itself. However, it might be one of her books that brings the most interesting ideas -- too bad the author killed herself before seeing it published.

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About Virginia Woolf

(Adeline) Virginia Woolf was an English novelist and essayist regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century.

During the interwar period, Woolf was a significant figure in London literary society and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Her most famous works include the novels Mrs Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), and Orlando (1928), and the book-length es...more

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“Books are the mirrors of the soul.” — 942 people liked it

“Often on a wet day I begin counting up; what I've read and what I haven't read.” — 174 people liked it

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