The Waves (Wordsworth Classics)

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

• Used

  Paperback
  2000

  $4.82

  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.

• Used

  Paperback
  2008

  $4.96

  Set on the English coast against the vivid backdrop of the sea, The Waves introduces six characters who are grappling with the death of a beloved friend, Percival. The characters are almost imperceptibly revealed through the kaleidoscopic accumulation of their reflections on themselves and each other. Regarded by many as Virginia Woolf's masterpiece, The Waves was partially written in order to exorcise her private ghosts as the central, yet absent, character of Percival represents her brother Thoby, who died in 1906. It is a poetic dreamscape, visual, experimental and thrilling. With introductions by Jeanette Winterson and Gillian Beer.

• Used

  Hardcover
  1992

  $5.13

  Woolf described this work on the title-page of the first draft as the life of anybody . The Waves (1931) traces the lives and interactions of seven friends in an exploratory and sensuous narrative. It was conceived, brooded on, and written during a highly political phase in Woolf's career, when she was engaged in speaking on issues of gender and of class. This was also the period when her love affair with Vita Sackville-West was at its most intense.

• New

  Paperback
  1978

  $19.34