The Waves — Virginia Woolf

The Waves is a 1931 novel by Virginia Woolf and is considered to be her most experimental work The book consists of soliloquies spoken by six characters Bernard Susan Rhoda Neville Jinny and Louis Also important is Percival the seventh character though readers never hear him speak in his own voice The soliloquies 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 Tanıtım Bülteninden

Intensely visionary yet absorbed with the everyday experimental daring and challenging The Waves is regarded by many as Virginia Woolfs greatest achievement It follows a set of six friends from childhood to middle age as they experience the world around them and explore who they are and what it means to be alive As the contours of their lives are revealed a unique novel is slowly unveiled Enfolded within Woolfs lyrical and mysterious language the mundane takes on a startling new significance while distant pasts are no less in play than the clamorous sounds and kaleidoscopic sights of the modern city Yet precisely where the alluringly enigmatic pages of The Waves are leading and what deeper meanings are held within its undulant chapters and shimmering interludes are questions that have never ceased to enthral readers and critics alike In this new edition David Bradshaw considers the spellbinding oddness and originality of The Waves helping the reader to negotiate a way though this most poetic and haunting of novels