Short & Sweet Treats discussion

"The Waves, more than any of Virginia Woolf's novels, conveys the complexities of human experience. Tracing the lives of a group of friends, The Waves follows their development from childhood to youth and middle age.

While social events, individual achievements and disappointments form its narrative, the novel is most remarkable for the rich poetic language that conveys the inner life of its characters: their aspirations, their triumphs and regrets, their awareness of unity and isolation. Separately and together, they query the relationship of past to present, and the meaning of life itself."

The Waves is online free in pdf form: http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/w/woolf...

Julia wrote: "The Waves is online free in pdf form: http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/w/woolf..."

Thank you, Julia! :D

Thanks, Julia!

You're most welcome--so many of the shorter pieces of literature are now available online--and I like that I can make the print larger :-)

I'm really curious as to how I will like this book. So far I've only read one book by her ( ) and I found that beautifully written, but hard to get through...
Recently I did a test about what classic writer is your soulmate; mine apparently is Virginia Woolf...
So I guess I'll have to like it ;)...

Elsbeth, I'm also curious about this book. Particularly that it has no apparent plot and plenty of diverse characters. It's my first read by Virginia Woolf and I have another book by her lined up.

I get a weekly newsletter from Brain Pickings, which always has interesting articles. This entry today addresses Virginia Woolf's suicide: "March 28, 1941: Virginia Woolf's Suicide Letter and Its Cruel Misinterpretation in the Media"
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.ph...

A very real lesson in the need to remember that we can never truly know another. so we have no right to sit in judgment on their choices. I felt the same way about David Foster Wallace.

Julia wrote: "I get a weekly newsletter from Brain Pickings, which always has interesting articles. This entry today addresses Virginia Woolf's suicide: "March 28, 1941: Virginia Woolf's Suicide Letter and Its C..."

What a beautiful, loving letter that is! I can really feel for her! Although I've never really been there myself, I can imagine her illness must have been awful. Also on her husband. Her letter shows she killed herself also for her husband, so he wouldn't have to go trough it again. Even though he might have done so lovingly, if only to keep her with him...!

I've started this book - it is not an easy read (probably none of her books are...). I think she has some very interesting points of view she writes from. In this case - to tell the story by letting the characters tell it themselves. (in Mrs. Dalloway the story was told from inside the mind of several characters - you could hardly notice it when the point of view swapped from one character to the next - it was all from their thoughts...).

Marwa wrote: "Elsbeth, I'm also curious about this book. Particularly that it has no apparent plot and plenty of diverse characters. It's my first read by Virginia Woolf and I have another book by her lined up."

Which one is the other one?

I think Virginia Woolfs descriptions of the waves and the rising sun are so very beautiful! It is like reading a painting...!

I agree, Elbeth--those first few paragraphs were stunning. But I began to get confused with the shifting interior monologues, so found this information that I hope keeps me a bit straighter:

"The Waves, first published in 1931, is Virginia Woolf's most experimental novel. It consists of soliloquies spoken by the book's six characters: Bernard, Susan, Rhoda, Neville, Jinny, and Louis. Also important is Percival, the seventh character, though readers never hear him speak through 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" alternately speak, Woolf explores concepts of individuality, self, and community. Each character is distinct, yet together they compose a gestalt about a silent central consciousness....

Woolf herself wrote in her Diary that the six were not meant to be separate "characters" at all, but rather facets of consciousness illuminating a sense of continuity. Woolf herself called it not a novel but a "playpoem"."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Waves

I just found an interesting paper that may be of interest once we've finished the book: "Virginia Woolf's The Waves: A Novel of Silence" by Francesco Mulas.

http://www.uniss.it/lingue/annali_fil...

Julia wrote: "I agree, Elbeth--those first few paragraphs were stunning. But I began to get confused with the shifting interior monologues, so found this information that I hope keeps me a bit straighter:

"[boo..."

Yes, that is very helpful (I just read it myself on internet). I don't know if I agree with the statement that this should be her 'most experimental novel' - I think I found Mrs. Dalloway even more difficult to follow... Here at least it is obvious when the view changes (with statements like: 'Susan said'), in Mrs. Dalloway it is more subtle.

Elsbeth wrote: "Marwa wrote: "Elsbeth, I'm also curious about this book. Particularly that it has no apparent plot and plenty of diverse characters. It's my first read by Virginia Woolf and I have another book by ..."

The other one is To the Lighthouse. I'm hoping I could start The Waves tonight.

Marwa wrote: "Elsbeth wrote: "Marwa wrote: "Elsbeth, I'm also curious about this book. Particularly that it has no apparent plot and plenty of diverse characters. It's my first read by Virginia Woolf and I have ..."

Ah, how is To the Lighthouse?

I didn't think I'd like this book but I figured I'd give it a try. And I actually enjoyed it. I didn't "love" it but I really appreciated her craft. It's true that her prose is poetry. I loved her descriptions of the sun and the waves and the birds etc. I also got a real kick out of the private thoughts of the characters. We all are insecure in our own ways. I would have never considered this book if I hadn't seen it here. Thanks to all!

Elsbeth wrote: "Ah, how is To the Lighthouse? "

Actually Elsbeth, the Waves is my first read by Virginia Woolf. I might be able to start To the Lighthouse after I finish this one.

I have to admit though that the amount of unfamiliar vocabulary is immense in this one. Giving the fact that English is not my mother tongue. And I second John about the imagery in the book, it's my favorite part so far. The sun description throughout the course of the day and relating it to the chapters of the lives of the characters makes it seem as if we only live for a day. I'm only 30% done with the book as I'm writing this, so forgive me if I'm mistaken.

I don't have a favorite character just yet because up until now it's hard for me to get the whole of a single one of them.

Elsbeth wrote: "I think Virginia Woolfs descriptions of the waves and the rising sun are so very beautiful! It is like reading a painting...!"

Lovely!

Has anyone read The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer? I read a review that compared the two. I'm not far enough into Waves to make the connection.

I think this book with take me a while to finish... my mind tends to wonder and I have to go back and re-read.... :/ I'm hoping the farther I get into it'll catch my attention a little more.

This book makes like a stream of consciousness prose poem. Unlike Joyce's Ulysses the different characters stream of consciousness occur over many years rather than just one day. In another comparison with Joyce's Ulysses there is less plot in "The Waves" even though it occurs over a larger time span.

Stream of consciousness in these characters comes across as a series of pronouncements from both the conscious and unconscious mind. One quote shows this, "What
then is the knowledge that Jinny has as she dances; the assurance
that Susan has as, stooping quietly beneath the lamplight, she
draws the white cotton through the eye of her needle? They say,
Yes; they say, No; they bring their fists down with a bang on the
table. But I doubt; I tremble; I see the wild thorn tree shake its
shadow in the desert."

I found I liked Orlando and To the Lighthouse more but I'm glad we looked at this work.

Marwa wrote: "Elsbeth, I'm also curious about this book. Particularly that it has no apparent plot and plenty of diverse characters. It's my first read by Virginia Woolf and I have another book by her lined up."

I think To the Lighthouse and Orlando are more readable. I found this book is more poetic than plot driven.

I studied the Waves in my second year at University and I still can't completely make sense of the novel.

The language is beautiful, but that doesn't mean that there's all there is to it. Virginia Woolf, I think, really tries hard to escape language conventions in order to convey an accurate representation of experience, and that it is fragmented and it branches out in these random diversions and distractions whereas traditional storytelling is unforgivingly rigid in its directness.

This was definitely not a book that I could've read on my commute or during lunch break. I had to find a quiet spot to read and reread paragraphs and chapters. It is a difficult novel, but well worth it if you invest the time and energy. Otherwise, none of it is really going to stick and when you're finished, you'll only have a vague sense that you've read something rather pretty.