Showing results by author "Virginia Woolf" in All Categories

A single day becomes the entirety of a life in Virginia Woolf’s enduring exploration of a woman’s soul and purpose. As society hostess Clarissa Dalloway prepares for a party, she also reflects hour by hour on her past, her secret burdens, her safe marriage, and other compromises that have brought her to this moment in time. But elsewhere in London, a stranger, a damaged World War I veteran, makes irreversible choices of his own - choices that will intrude on Mrs. Dalloway’s reverie before the night is over.

Jacob’s Room was written in 1922 and is Virginia Woolf’s third novel; the first in which she made a radical shift from the established style of prose narrative writing and began experimenting with the modernist "stream of consciousness style" now so firmly associated with her work and that so shook the literary establishment. Jacob’s Room is overwhelmingly centered around feelings of absence and emptiness and is a collection of memories and sensations that chart the life of Jacob Flanders, largely observed through the eyes of others.

Here are short stories by the incomparable Virginia Woolf, including the story that was the original basis for the novel Mrs. Dalloway.

A party of English people is aboard the Euphrosyne, bound for South America. Among them is Rachel Vinrace, a young girl, innocent and wholly ignorant of the world of politics and society, books, sex, love and marriage. She is a free spirit half-caught, momentarily and passionately, by Terence Hewet, an aspiring writer who she meets in Santa Marina. But their engagement is to end abruptly, and tragically. Virginia Woolf's first novel, published in 1915, is a haunting exploration of a young woman's mind. 

At its heart is Rachel Vinrace, a young woman embarking on a sea voyage that becomes a profound exploration of identity, love, and the fragile boundaries between freedom and convention. Through innovative prose and keen psychological insight, Woolf captures both the beauty and unease of the human experience. By turns satirical, poignant and quietly devastating, The Voyage Out is an extraordinary meditation on youth, society and purpose.

The Voyage Out, Virginia Woolfs debut novel published in 1915, takes readers on an enchanting journey to South America aboard her fathers ship. Here, Rachel Vinrace embarks on a transformative quest of self-discovery amidst a cast of mismatched passengers, allowing Woolf to cleverly satirize the complexities of Edwardian society. This novel not only introduces readers to Clarissa Dalloway, the protagonist of Woolfs later work, Mrs. Dalloway, but also captivates with its unique narrative style. E. M. Forster praised it as ...a strange, tragic, inspired book whose scene is a South America not ...

Conversations happen everywhere. A few words to pass the time or a detailed examination of views. But on trains they seem to be different. Speaking whilst in motion gives the whole discussion a momentum that often takes us into uncharted territory.

Fifty short stories by women writers who broke the mould.

Adeline Virginia Woolf (January 1882-1941) was an English writer and one of the preeminent modernists of the 20th century. Her stories often seem to take the form of a stream of consciousness. 'A Haunted House' tells the story of a ghostly couple flitting from one room to the next in search of their hidden treasure...but what is it?

This is a story from the Classic Women's Short Stories collection.

To be a woman is to be half the world’s population but, in many countries, unfortunately still now and for most of history, women were decidedly second class, normally no more than chattels and the bearers and nurturers of children. As society involved into a complex and overlapping system where education and equality begin to seek space things began to change. In this volume our authors describe and reveal how life actually felt for almost all women before the recent past.

Published seven years after the first instalment, The Common Reader: Second Series explores the works of Thomas Hardy, Laurence Stern and George Eliot, elegantly dissecting the art of the biography and the very nature of reading itself. Again Woolf speaks from the perspective of the everyday reader, urging for an intuitive and curious approach to literature – one which allows for freedom and experimentation as opposed to academic rigour.

Elegantly covering topics such as the nature of reality, the power of memory and the priceless value of literature, in this sophisticated collection of essays, Woolf more than ever focuses her attention on the fleeting moments of life that meaningfully shape the human experience. In the title essay, The Moment, she pursues the powerful, albeit brief, moments that enable a potent feeling of being utterly understood, and consequently, wholeheartedly alive.

Published in 1937 to commercial success, The Years is a powerful narrative that traces the fortunes of the Pargiter family from the 1880s through to the 1930s, capturing the shifting tides of English society as old traditions give way to modernity. Through Woolf's characteristically lyrical prose and sharp psychological insight, the ordinary rhythms of domestic life – births, deaths, reunions, quiet moments of longing – become heavy with meaning.

Published in 1919, Woolf's early novel unfolds in Edwardian London, where Katherine Hilbery, the granddaughter of a celebrated poet, navigates questions of marriage, independence and intellectual freedom. Her forthright acquaintance, Mary Datchet, a suffragist committed to political change, carries a contrasting vision of life and love, and her opinions throw Katherine's choices into sharp relief. While more traditional in form than Woolf's later works, Night and Day reveals her emerging mastery of psychological depth and subtle irony.

Between the Acts is Virginia Woolf’s final novel, set in a quiet English village just before World War II. The story unfolds over the course of one day, as villagers prepare for and perform an outdoor pageant that reflects the history of England. Beneath the surface of this seemingly simple event, tensions rise—between family members, within relationships, and in the looming shadow of war.

Hätte Shakespeare eine Schwester gehabt, ebenso begabt wie er, wie wäre es ihr ergangen? Welche Widerstände mussten Jane Austen oder die Brontë-Schwestern überwinden? Im Oktober 1928 hielt Virginia Woolf zwei Vorträge am ersten Frauencollege Großbritanniens an der Universität Cambridge. Ob ihnen bewusst sei, fragte Woolf ihre Zuhörerinnen, dass sie vielleicht "das am häufigsten abgehandelte Tier des Universums" seien? Schließlich wurde Literatur über Frauen fast ausschließlich von Männern verfasst. Aus Woolfs Vorträgen entstand der Essay Ein Zimmer für sich allein, den sie ein Jahr später veröffentlichte.

Presented here is Volume IV of our Feminist Literary Classics series, featuring three of the most important feminist works ever written: A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë and The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather.

"A Room of One's Own" began life as a pair of lectures delivered by Virginia Woolf in October 1928 at Newnham College and Girton College, women's colleges at the University of Cambridge and was published as a stand-alone book in 1929. In this brilliant examination of literature, history and gender discrimination, Woolf posits that the dearth of female writers in literature did not result from a lack of talent; it was the lack of opportunity.

Presented here is Volume III of our Feminist Literary Classics series, featuring three of the most important feminist novels ever written: Orlando: A Biography by Virginia Woolf, O Pioneers! by Willa Cather and So Big by Edna Ferber. The first book in this collection is Orlando: A Biography, a groundbreaking English novel by Virginia Woolf that explores English history, gender roles and sexual politics in a way few books have before or since.