The Waves
by Virginia Woolf
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Read in March, 2008
recommends it for:
poetry fans and people who like books that push genre boundaries
I’d recommend The Waves to poetry fans and to people who like books that push genre boundaries.
The lives of six friends are told through soliloquies by each of the characters. My initial reaction was to think of some “performance artists,” 6 people dressed in black telling monologues, a spotlight shining on each in turn. This took some getting used to in the first chapter. Wouldn’t the story be better served by some good old-fashioned dialogue? I asked myself. Then I t...more
The lives of six friends are told through soliloquies by each of the characters. My initial reaction was to think of some “performance artists,” 6 people dressed in black telling monologues, a spotlight shining on each in turn. This took some getting used to in the first chapter. Wouldn’t the story be better served by some good old-fashioned dialogue? I asked myself. Then I t...more
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a great recommendation from a friend. Seems like it could be life-changing, or possibly a little sad or maybe both. The hand-written inscription in the copy I found used was worth the entire purchase anyway, read it:
2/14/84
Martin-
I'm sure you know that you've been on my mind a great deal over the last few days. I've struggled for words to capture my own grief at your mom's death, to express my appreciation for yours, and perhaps, to offer some solace by explaining to you how strong...more
2/14/84
Martin-
I'm sure you know that you've been on my mind a great deal over the last few days. I've struggled for words to capture my own grief at your mom's death, to express my appreciation for yours, and perhaps, to offer some solace by explaining to you how strong...more
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Read in November, 2007
The Waves is unquestionably Woolf's masterpiece. Whether Neville, Bernard, Rhoda, Jinny, Lewis, and Susan - the friends whose lives the narrator traces from dawn till dusk, so to speak - are six sides of Woolf's personality, embodiments of the Bloomsbury group, or the proverbial figments of her imagination, its clear that Woolf has captured the essence of humanity in all its suffering, insecurities, and heartache.
That being said, I only gave it three stars because I found myself drifting off...more
That being said, I only gave it three stars because I found myself drifting off...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in May, 2008
recommends it for:
anyone
It took a study group at St. John's to bring me to return to this work, but I am so very glad indeed that that occasion crossed my path.
On this re-read, I discovered so much more than just Woolf's genius, which had impressed itself upon me so strongly in my first reading. Above all, I suppose, I discovered an undiscovered country inside myself and my seemingly well-disclosed and quite familiar identity. The way in which Woolf uses both her masterful command of her genuinely unique approac...more
On this re-read, I discovered so much more than just Woolf's genius, which had impressed itself upon me so strongly in my first reading. Above all, I suppose, I discovered an undiscovered country inside myself and my seemingly well-disclosed and quite familiar identity. The way in which Woolf uses both her masterful command of her genuinely unique approac...more
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Read in January, 2007
recommends it for:
people interested in modernist experimentation
Forster has this great line about Woolf; he says that, just as he's about to write something about her, he finds that he's misplaced his pen. Then he goes on to talk about how you can only really appreciate Woolf when you're writing about her, which is a lovely way of saying that Woolf is a writerly writer in the Barthesian sense: she demands that you put something of yourself into the novel, that you become active in the writing process in order to experience the narrative. But then, as Forst...more
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Read in December, 2002
I've read this book several times. The first attempt my mind drifted off half the time because there is no plot (which is perfectly fine). I wandered so much that I had to reread the final chapter but by the time I got to the last two pages I burst into tears. It vouches for the power of a book when the reader can be so moved by the ending after only truly paying attention to the final chapter.
I love what The Waves says about being human, being flawed, the importance of small events, small ...more
I love what The Waves says about being human, being flawed, the importance of small events, small ...more
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Read in June, 2008
Virginia Woolf’s classic is told in a very interesting style. She has each of six characters speak directly to the reader, describing what they are feeling and seeing. She writes in a very poetical method; each character sees the world in very different ways. It was confusing at first, but the poetry is amazing. It takes a while to understand the way she writes, especially since the characters begin speaking when they are young children. I am reading it alongside Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Za...more
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Read in May, 2003
This is such a confusing book, if you try and follow the plot exactly. Never mind what happens or doesn't happen, reading The Waves is like being underwater and glimpsing large shapes moving in the murky depths, and seeing wobbly shapes in the sky up through the water, and surfacing for brief moments in brilliant sunshine with salt spray splashing you in the eyes and a glittering city spread out in the near distance, before you're plunged bracingly into an icy pool or quietly re-embraced...more
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Read in May, 2008
recommends it for:
those who are looking and willing to make time for aesthetics in literature
It's almost foolish to actually even comment about this book as I barely took anything from the book to actually know what I'm talking about. I struggled reading this book, but I found that if you could concentrate well enough, it could take you in as easily as it spits you out upon being distracted.
The story itself takes us through soliloquies of six different characters, from their childhood to the dusk of their lives, revealing some interesting insights of these different individuals. I'...more
The story itself takes us through soliloquies of six different characters, from their childhood to the dusk of their lives, revealing some interesting insights of these different individuals. I'...more
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Read in June, 2007
So I'd started this book lots of times, but I guess I never quite made it through it. Perhaps because my big Virginia Woolf phase happened when I was about 13, and I was somehow not quite ready for The Waves at that point in my life. But a full reading makes me want a rereading, and another, and another which is always, to me, a good sign. This book is simultaneously (a bit unexpectedly) linear and, of course, very circular--a beautiful reproduction of a wave shape, over and over and over again....more
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Read in August, 2007
recommends it for:
Serious Modernists and Poetry Lovers
Woolf's boldest experiment, The Waves is not for the casual reader. The book is often categorized as a novel, but it certainly does not read like one. Woolf called it her "play poem," and I think it is best read as a long poem.
The book takes place entirely in the mind of the six alternating narrators, so there is no real story in the conventional sense. It is more of an abstract portrayal of life from start to finish.
The real takeaway for me from the book was the sheer beaut...more
The book takes place entirely in the mind of the six alternating narrators, so there is no real story in the conventional sense. It is more of an abstract portrayal of life from start to finish.
The real takeaway for me from the book was the sheer beaut...more
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The Waves, even though it fits into the rest of the books by Virginia Woolf, stands on its own and therefore I guess you;d have to give it either 1 or 5 stars. I chose 5 because even though I get mixed feelings when thinking back about this one, there really is no other book I can compare it with. The downside of that is that there isn't any way to prepare for it, either. You have to read it on its own terms and therefore, don't be like me, don't take it with you on a holiday! Instead, reserve t...more
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Read in October, 2004
recommends it for:
Literary readers
Note: If you're new to Virginia Woolf, please start with another book. This is a much better read if you already like her.
Virginia Woolf’s book that was so preoccupied with characters it could scarcely be bothered to tell a story about them. Descriptions of bits of their lives and personalities wash up on the pages like breaking waves, capturing some of the intellectual depth of poetry without using its form. On one level it’s a great achievement, a liberation of writing; on another, A.D...more
Virginia Woolf’s book that was so preoccupied with characters it could scarcely be bothered to tell a story about them. Descriptions of bits of their lives and personalities wash up on the pages like breaking waves, capturing some of the intellectual depth of poetry without using its form. On one level it’s a great achievement, a liberation of writing; on another, A.D...more
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Stunning! This novel is often touted as a masterpiece of "modernist" fiction, mostly because of the language Woolf uses. However, it's such a beautiful, tragic tale of six children becoming adults in a very frightening world. And Woolf's language is masterful, but more because she illustrates how language is useless-- it cannot accurately or sufficiently convey emotion and yet it is all we have. As Bernard says, "It is the effort and the struggle, it is the perpetual warfare, it i...more
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موج هارا با ترجمه خوب مهدي غبرايي خوندم
و يكي از رمان هاي كه هم ميشود گفت شعر است هم داستان..نويسنده انقدر با لطافت و احساسات لطيف مي نويسد كه گاهي فكر مي كني تكه اي شعر دلنشين ترا به رويا برده
موج ها از زبان شش راوي از خردسالي تا بزرگسالي بيان شده ...
با اينكه خواسته همه بيهودگ...more
و يكي از رمان هاي كه هم ميشود گفت شعر است هم داستان..نويسنده انقدر با لطافت و احساسات لطيف مي نويسد كه گاهي فكر مي كني تكه اي شعر دلنشين ترا به رويا برده
موج ها از زبان شش راوي از خردسالي تا بزرگسالي بيان شده ...
با اينكه خواسته همه بيهودگ...more
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Read in December, 2007
I can say without a doubt, this is the greatest book of the 20th century. Why it isn't taught in undergraduate/graduate level classes heaven only knows. Woolf has outdone herself here as she takes her reader inside the lives of a group of friends. Questions about identity, selfhood, class structure, and the meaning of life are all introduced here. No other author I have ever read so perfectly positions the reader inside the characters rather than giving us the birds eye view of the scene.
Th...more
Th...more
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Read in April, 2007
recommends it for:
People who want to see the fun side of Virginia Woolf
I think this book is one of the more accessible novels written by Virginia Woolf. You can really tell that Woolf really tried to do something different with this book, seen from the more fluid conversations (fun ones!), increased use of physical narration (people do more than walk around London or throw parties, although there is a party still), and a less intrusive narrator (no more overly dramatic, self-involved 3rd person narrations of Mrs. Ramsey or Mrs. Dalloway!)
Basically, I thought o...more
Basically, I thought o...more
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She writes with some of the most beautiful language and imagery!
I read this book for a women in lit class and I learned she's apart of the modernist movement owing to her lose and unconventional novel format... but i'm thinking she just wrote this book during one of her many manic episodes. Her thoughts on the page seem to mirror the stream of conscious crazy speed of the creative brain power during an extreme period of mania....Anyway i'm not trying to romanticize her illness in anyway, I ...more
I read this book for a women in lit class and I learned she's apart of the modernist movement owing to her lose and unconventional novel format... but i'm thinking she just wrote this book during one of her many manic episodes. Her thoughts on the page seem to mirror the stream of conscious crazy speed of the creative brain power during an extreme period of mania....Anyway i'm not trying to romanticize her illness in anyway, I ...more
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Read in January, 1987
I had to read this for an upper division college course many years ago. The class as a whole hated it, but I actually thought it was brilliantly done. The imagery and metaphors with which Wolff chronicles the lives of these people illuminates human nature. I don't remember too many of the particulars, but I do recall that it speaks eloquantly on the subject of aging, though that is not the entire theme of the book. I don't know that it is anything that I would have picked up and read if I didn't...more
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recommends it for:
the poetically minded
The waves is a dreamy, stream of consciousness, maelstrom of emotion and voice. The reader simply needs to surrender to Woolf's exploration of these young people's worlds, or get lost in the sea of words. The words are the meaning and movement of this book. It is a beautiful exploration of the lives of six childhood friends as they move from youth to adulthood. It is a genre bending novel that would have had most writing teachers in knots had Virgina Woolf ever been subjected to that kind of sc...more
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book data (includes all editions)
avg rating (all editions): 4.11 (1315 ratings) avg rating (this edition): 4.12 (1127 ratings) number of reviews: 148popular shelves
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"The crystal, the globe of life as one calls it, far from being hard and cold to the touch, has walls of thinnest air. If I press them all will burst."
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