LET'S VOTE : VIRGINIA WOOLF'S BEST BOOK ?

Virginia Woolf was an essayist, publisher, critique but more than that she was a great novelist who advanced the frontiers of the English novel by adopting a revolutionary technique for the expression of her vision of life and human nature. She is considered to be one of the leading figures of modernist literature of the twentieth century who used the stream of consciousness technique to get close to the mind of the characters and expressed exactly the impact of life on their personality.

It is difficult to assess from her terrific style of writing that she has never ever been to school and got her whole education from her parents only.

Her unique style of writing novels was never dependent on focusing on characterizations, plot constructions, subjectivity, tragedy, comedy, and romance as well as love interest as in the traditional novels.

Instead of these characteristics she focused more on representing the inner self of the characters, analysed their psychological mind set, their hidden thoughts and desires of unconscious minds. She gave more emphasis on the importance and significance of that particular thought occurred in the mind of the character on that particular time period than the logical sequence.

The opinion of her fans for Virginia’s best novel varies from person to person. Some says To the Lighthouse; some believes Mrs Dalloway or Orlando. So what do you feel? What is Virginia's best novel?

Personally, i got attracted to Virginia Woolf through her novel called Mrs Dalloway i really enjoyed reading it. I feel this is her best novel; at least it’s my favorite.

The following is a list of Virginia’s most famous books, ranked in order of their date of publication. Vote for your favorite at the end of the article in a comment box!

"The gang's all here [287/365]"(CC BY-NC 2.0) by Sarah Ross photography

THE VOYAGE OUT

Virginia’s first novel published on March 26, 1915. The title suggests author's journey into an unknown world. The novel begins with the character of Rachel Vinrace, who has lost her mother (Theresa) at the age of 11. The voyage starts with the ship named 'Euphrosyne' a ship owned by Rachel’s father Willoughby.

NIGHT AND DAY

Virginia’s second novel was published on 20 Oct, 1919. The story represents the contrast of two phases of life out of which first deals with the daily life and second the romantic attachments of two acquaintances, Katherine Hilbery and Marry Datchet. The novel describes the silence discussed the things people don't say.

JACOB'S ROOM

It’s a third novel of Virginia Woolf, published on 26 Oct, 1922. Its theme based on the male protagonist Jacob Flanders's life. The story is told mainly through the perspectives of the women in Jacob's life.

MRS DALLOWAY

It’s a fourth novel published on May 14, 1925. It’s one of the renowned novels by her. The protagonist of novel is Clarissa Dalloway, who is about to throw a party in the evening. Whole novel deals with single day of 24 hours.

TO The LIGHTHOUSE

Its a fifth novel published on May 5, 1927. Whole novel is divided into three sections representing the theme of stream of consciousness and time & timelessness. The story deals with the visit to Isle of Skye.

ORLANDO

Orlando, was Woolf’s ninth novel was published on 11 Oct, but 1928. It’s a kind of fantasy biography, was based on life, ancestry, and literary background of her friend which was totally dedicated to Woolf’s girlfriend Vita Sack Ville. This novel was dealt with the concept of androgyny. British filmmaker Sally Potter made a film on this particular novel named Orlando in the year 1993.

THE WAVES

Its Virginia’s tenth novel published on 8 Oct 1931. The novel is basically an x ray of the inner life, laying bare the nerves of the six principle characters of the novel.

THE YEARS

The Years is Virginia’s Last novel which was published in her lifetime in the year 1937. It was written after six years of The Waves. It shows a return to the manner of Mrs Dalloway and To the Lighthouse. The novel is concerned with the good and evil, right and wrong. It can be called a justification of the ways of God to men.

BETWEEN THE ACTS

Between the Acts is the final novel by Virginia Woolf, published in 1941 shortly after her suicide. The location in the novel is somewhere in a country house of London in England just before the World War. It describes the day when the pageant is to be performed in the grounds of the house.

Comments

VIRGINIA WOOLF AND STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS IN MRS DALLOWAY

INTRODUCTION The stream of consciousness is a narrative technique on which so many writers have given their views whether they are essayist, novelists etc, but the most well known is Virginia Woolf who is considered as the forerunner of this style of writing. "Influenced by the works of French writer Marcel Proust and Irish writer James Joyce, among others, Woolf strove to create a literary form that would convey inner life. To this end, she elaborated a technique known as stream of consciousness" (Bouzid) Richardson is the pioneer of the stream of consciousness technique. He is the first 20th century British author to publish a full length stream of consciousness novel Pointed Roofs. On one side was the little grey river, on the other long wet grass repelling and depressing. Not far ahead was the roadway which led, she supposed to the farm where they were to drink new milk. She would have to walk with someone when they came on the road, and talk. She wond...

VIRGINIA WOOLF AND STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS IN TO THE LIGHTHOUSE

INTRODUCTION "stream of consciousness"(CC BY-SA 2.0) by planeta To the Lighthouse is not an easy novel to read. Its style of writing is quite critical. Readers can get confused because there are none of the standard novelistic signposts telling the readers what is the location, where the action is being done. who is speaking, when this takes place. For example the novel begins with the answer to a question that has not been asked, and that question is answered by the person who has not been described, and addressed to a child who seems to be sitting on the floor in an unspecified location. Every single thing is ambiguous. Nor is there much respect for the standard novelistic conventions of clock time or consecutive action. Woolf seems to delight in confusing the readers by using and inserting a recollection or anticipating a reaction, consequently past and present and future seem to flow into one another in an unbroken stream of consciousness. STREAM OF CONSCI...

VIRGINIA WOOLF AND INTERIOR MONOLOGUE IN HER NOVELS

"Blah Blah Blah (CC BY-NC 2.0) by id.-iom INTRODUCTION "A monologue is presented by a single character, most often to express their mental thoughts aloud, though sometimes also to directly address another character or the audience." (Hargrave) Virginia Woolf beautifully uses both the techniques whether its stream of consciousness or interior monologue she continued to use the same technique in her subsequent novels as well. It is already mentioned that Woolf was not at all satisfied with the traditional method of writing novels. In an essay Modern Fiction she had criticized novelist like Arnold Bennet and John Galsworthy for the 'Naturalistic' manner in which they had written their novels. James Joyce probed the same inner consciousness in Ulysses which Woolf probed in Mrs. Dalloway. Although there is an incessant flow of thoughts which has been given the technical name of 'the stream of consc...

WHY DID VIRGINIA WOOLF COMMIT SUICIDE ?

This was the question hitting everybody's mind when it was declared publicly, that Woolf is no more, she drowned herself into the river Ouse near her house and committed suicide on 28 March, 1941. The above is the news in The New York Times regarding Virginia, who was missing from her house. Sources were saying that she already planned to kill herself because she did not find any charm in her life. Still she neither informed anybody nor she shared it with her husband. Eventually people of her area found her clothes in the river then everyone came to know about the sad demise of her. WHY SHE CHOSE RIVER ONLY ? "Virginia Woolf"(CC BY -SA 2.0) by Wolf Gang Now the question is again unanswered that if she was enjoying her life with her husband, everything seems to be happy and gay then why she took this decision? Even if she decided to kill herself then why she chose river to be the option ? Why not any other ways to do it? Does she not like her existence...

VIRGINIA WOOLF AND OEDIPUS COMPLEX

INTRODUCTION In Freudian Theory: "The complex of emotions aroused in a young child, typically around the age of four, by an unconscious sexual desire for the parent of the opposite sex and wishes to exclude the parent of the same sex. The term was originally applied to boys, the equivalent in girls being called the Electra complex." (Schuller) Freud's theory of Oedipus complex has become a major theme for various renowned English novelists like example: - D.H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers, Shakespeare's Hamlet, Eugene O'Neill's Desire Under the Elms, Sophocles’s Oedipus the King and last but not the least Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse, Orlando etc. Another thing apart from all the literary techniques, which caught attention while reading To the Lighthouse is the language that Virginia uses to describe James and her mother Mrs. Ramsay’s relationship. One can easily forget that James is Mrs. Ramsay's six year old son and think ...

VIRGINIA WOOLF - A BRIEF GLANCE ON HER LIFE, WORKS AND STYLE.

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