The Waves (Wordsworth Classics)

by Deborah Parsons (Introduction), Dr Keith Carabine (Series Editor), Virginia Woolf (Author), Deborah Parsons (Introduction)

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  Paperback
  2000

  $3.48

  Introduction and Notes by Deborah Parsons, University of Birmingham. 'I am writing to a rhythm and not to a plot', Virginia Woolf stated of her eighth novel, The Waves. Widely regarded as one of her greatest and most original works, it conveys the rhythms of life in synchrony with the cycle of nature and the passage of time. Six children - Bernard, Susan, Rhoda, Neville, Jinny and Louis - meet in a garden close to the sea, their voices sounding over the constant echo of the waves that roll back and forth from the shore. The subsequent continuity of these six main characters, as they develop from childhood to maturity and follow different passions and ambitions, is interspersed with interludes from the timeless and unifying chorus of nature. In pure stream-of-consciousness style, Woolf presents a cross-section of multiple yet parallel lives, each marked by the disintegrating force of a mutual tragedy. The Waves is her searching exploration of individual and collective identity, and the observations and emotions of life, from the simplicity and surging optimism of youth to the vacancy and despair of middle-age.

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  Paperback
  2006

  $3.35

  MY PENGUIN BOOKS BY THE GREATS, COVERS BY YOU. Tracing the lives of a group of six friends, The Waves follows their development from childhood to youth and middle age. While their individual achievements and disappointments form its narrative, this novel is most remarkable for the rich poetic language that conveys the inner lives 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, in a haunting, atmospheric and sensuous exploration of the complexities of human experience.

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  Paperback
  2000

  $10.28

  A formally innovative work of modernist fiction, Virginia Woolf's The Waves is edited with an introduction by Kate Flint in Penguin Modern Classics . More than any of Virginia Woolf's other novels, The Waves conveys the full complexity and richness 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 expresses 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. Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) is regarded as a major 20th century author and essayist, a key figure in literary history as a feminist and modernist, and the centre of The Bloomsbury Group . This informal collective of artists and writers, which included Lytton Strachey and Roger Fry , exerted a powerful influence over early twentieth-century British culture. Between 1925 and 1931 Virginia Woolf produced what are now regarded as her finest masterpieces, from Mrs Dalloway (1925) to the poetic and highly experimental novel The Waves (1931). She also maintained an astonishing output of literary criticism, short fiction, journalism and biography, including the playfully subversive Orlando (1928) and A Room of One's Own (1929) a passionate feminist essay. If you enjoyed The Waves , you might like Woolf's Mrs Dalloway , also available in Penguin Classics . A book of great beauty and a prose poem of genius. ( Stephen Spender ). Full of sensuous touches...the sounds of her words can be velvet on the page. (Maggie Gee, Daily Telegraph ).