Despite her life ending in 1941, the name Virginia Woolf
still breathes life and vitality into a room full of dusty old books. There are
so many reasons to be excited by Woolf: the perfection of her sentences, the
haunted characters, the dynamic narratives, the way that desire, unhappiness,
wit, life and death stalk every page. The following five favourites are all
treasures you should add to your reading list.
Orlando
This was the first of Woolf’s books that I read and made
quite the introduction to her work. The story travels through three centuries
following the life of Orlando, who begins the novel as a knight in the court of
Elizabeth I and ends up as a female writer in the 19th century. The
book is a sumptuous, colourful exploration of gender, literature and the
multi-faceted identities of a single being.
Mrs. Dalloway
This slim book holds within its covers a vast world of
literary technique and mastery. Taking place across twelve hours, it focuses
upon Clarissa Dalloway as she prepares a party. An event that sparks Clarissa
to ponder her life and her memories. This really is up there with Hamlet in
terms of it depicting one individual pondering the nature of life.
The Voyage Out
This was Woolf’s first novel and was written in a deluge of
self-doubt. The book is untouched by Woolf’s later experimentation which has
led some to discount it as merely a ‘first try’ sort of novel. In fact, it’s an
incredibly poignant work about a young woman on a journey of self-discovery
amongst a cast of colourful characters.
A Room of One’s Own
A Room of One’s Own is a battle cry. Eloquent, witty and
unforgettable. Just a quick glance through the pages and the eye is immediately
drawn to mesmerising sentences like ‘Fiction is like a spider's web, attached
ever so lightly perhaps, but still attached to life at all four corners,’ or ‘There
is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.’ Woolf
imaginatively uses the fictional figure of Judith Shakespeare, the playwright’s
‘sister’, to illustrate the side lining of women in literature. Reading it
leaves you nourished and inspired.
Selected Letters
The richness of Woolf’s talent extends into her personal
writing too. Her letters are never mundane, documenting her friendships with
figures such as her sister Vanessa and Lytton Strachey. It’s easy to hero
worship Virginia Woolf but these letters offer a glimpse into the normalities
of her life whilst highlighting the extraordinariness of it too.
Are you a Virginia Woolf fan? What is your favourite of her works?
0 comments:
Post a Comment