The Waves by Virginia Woolf

 

     After telling her that he thought The Waves was a masterpiece, Virginia Woolf's husband and first reader, Leonard, added that he "thinks the first 100 pages extremely difficult, & is doubtful how far any common reader will follow." I'm not sure if I qualify as a "common reader," but I maybe I am, because Leonard was spot on: It took me about 100 pages to learn how to read The Waves. The rest was pure pleasure.

As I move through Woolf's novels, I am delighted to find that she never seems to have let herself get into a rut. In each novel she tries something new. In The Waves it is the presentation of six characters (and a seventh whose voice we never hear) through internal monologues—the stories they tell about themselves at different stages of their lives. Woolf shows us, by the end that, though they are individuals, they also form a sort of grid: they are all part of each other. Waves, we remember, are each separate from the other, but are bound together by the sea that they roil.

I'm looking forward to continuing my Woolfathon and seeing what she gets up to next.

(My usual practice is to post a picture of the book cover. For reasons unclear to me, I am unable to do so with this post. Please imagine something suitable.)


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