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Cover of The Waves by Virginia Woolf

The Waves

Virginia Woolf

  • 256 pages · about 4 hours
  • First published 1931
  • 255 editions
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1 About this book

The Waves is a 1931 novel by English novelist Virginia Woolf. It is critically regarded as the culmination of her experimental lyric technique, consisting of ambiguous and cryptic soliloquies spoken by six characters: Bernard, Susan, Rhoda, Neville, Jinny and Louis. Percival, a seventh character, appears in the soliloquies, though readers never hear him speak in his own voice.

The dialogues that span the characters' lives are broken up by nine brief third-person interludes detailing a coastal scene at varying stages in a day from sunrise to sunset. As the six characters or "voices" speak, Woolf explores concepts of individuality, self and community. “Each character is distinct, yet together they compose a gestalt about a silent central consciousness”, according to a reviewer.

In a 2015 poll conducted by the BBC, The Waves was voted the 16th greatest British novel ever written.

Summary adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Good for readers who want: a classic and friendship.

  • Friendship
  • Identity (Psychology)
  • Friendship in fiction
  • Personal growth
  • Classics
  • English Manuscripts
  • Human beings

2 About Virginia Woolf

1882–1941

Adeline Virginia Woolf ( "wolf"; née Stephen; 25 January 1882 – 28 March 1941) was an English writer and one of the most influential 20th-century modernist authors. She helped to pioneer the use of stream of consciousness narration as a literary device. Virginia Woolf was born in South Kensington, London, into an affluent and intellectual family as the seventh child of Julia Prinsep Jackson and Leslie Stephen.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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