A landmark of twentieth-century literature, Virginia Woolf's most daring and visionary novel dissolves the boundaries of narrative convention in a radiant exploration of friendship, memory, and identity—now with a new introduction by Patti Smith.
“I love,” said Susan, “and I hate. I desire one thing only. My eyes are hard. Jinny’s eyes break into a thousand lights. Rhoda’s are like those pale flowers to which moths come in the evening. Yours grow full and brim and never break."
Spanning a lifetime, The Waves follows six friends from childhood into adulthood, their voices intertwining to trace the rhythms of friendship, love, ambition, loss, and the search for meaning. Together, they comprise a remarkable portrait of human consciousness.
Published in 1931 at the height of Woolf's creative powers, The Waves represents the culmination of her modernist innovation. Blurring the line between novel, prose poem, and philosophical meditation, it remains one of the boldest and most original achievements of twentieth-century fiction.
“Mrs. Woolf, so far as the novel is concerned has almost reached the jumping-off place. . . . The texture of the prose is a warp of sensory impressions woven into woof of poetical abstraction. As prose it has very often a high distinction—it is clear, bright, burnished, at once marvelously accurate and subtly connotative. The pure, delicate sensibility found in this language and the moods that it expresses are a true kind of poetry.” —The New York Times
“[Virginia Woolf] had the gift of epiphany.” —Teju Cole, author of Open City
“I love [Woolf’s] strength and fragility in equal measure.” —Deborah Levy, author of Hot Milk
VIRGINIA WOOLF (1882-1941) was born in London. A pioneer in the narrative use of stream of consciousness, she published her first novel, The Voyage Out, in 1915. This was followed by literary criticism and essays, most notably A Room of One’s Own, and other acclaimed novels, including Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, and Orlando.View titles by Virginia Woolf
A landmark of twentieth-century literature, Virginia Woolf's most daring and visionary novel dissolves the boundaries of narrative convention in a radiant exploration of friendship, memory, and identity—now with a new introduction by Patti Smith.
“I love,” said Susan, “and I hate. I desire one thing only. My eyes are hard. Jinny’s eyes break into a thousand lights. Rhoda’s are like those pale flowers to which moths come in the evening. Yours grow full and brim and never break."
Spanning a lifetime, The Waves follows six friends from childhood into adulthood, their voices intertwining to trace the rhythms of friendship, love, ambition, loss, and the search for meaning. Together, they comprise a remarkable portrait of human consciousness.
Published in 1931 at the height of Woolf's creative powers, The Waves represents the culmination of her modernist innovation. Blurring the line between novel, prose poem, and philosophical meditation, it remains one of the boldest and most original achievements of twentieth-century fiction.
Praise
“Mrs. Woolf, so far as the novel is concerned has almost reached the jumping-off place. . . . The texture of the prose is a warp of sensory impressions woven into woof of poetical abstraction. As prose it has very often a high distinction—it is clear, bright, burnished, at once marvelously accurate and subtly connotative. The pure, delicate sensibility found in this language and the moods that it expresses are a true kind of poetry.” —The New York Times
“[Virginia Woolf] had the gift of epiphany.” —Teju Cole, author of Open City
“I love [Woolf’s] strength and fragility in equal measure.” —Deborah Levy, author of Hot Milk
Author
VIRGINIA WOOLF (1882-1941) was born in London. A pioneer in the narrative use of stream of consciousness, she published her first novel, The Voyage Out, in 1915. This was followed by literary criticism and essays, most notably A Room of One’s Own, and other acclaimed novels, including Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, and Orlando.View titles by Virginia Woolf
