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Title: The Waves by Virginia Woolf ISBN: 0-15-694960-1 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: June, 1978 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.67 (21 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: A Beautiful Book - But Only for Students of Literature
Comment: One peculiar quality of many of Woolf's novels is the fact that they are more fun to talk about - afterwards - than they are to actually read, probably because the author had very peculiar ideas about what she wanted her novels to do. Because Woolf was always pushing the envelope of what a novel was, many of her books are very difficult to read. The Waves is probably the most difficult read this reviewer (and student of literature) has ever encountered.
The lives of six friends are presented from childhood in a series of interior monologues. There's a glacial slowness that challenges our yen for action, and the episodic nature of the book (covering decades) is not really designed to hold our attention. The point of the book is in how its characters perceive themselves and each other, but since we never get "outside" to form an objective opinion, it's difficult to care what's going to happen next. Maybe that's good, because there's only one significant event that transpires during this long novel (a sad death), and if there's even the slightest hint of humor in the book, this reviewer missed it.
Other "modern" novelists, such as William Faulkner, propose that each of us has our own unique inner voice, and they try to make their characters' interior monologues reflect these differences. But Woolf implies that these inner voices are all the same, or at least all six of these characters inner voices are all the same, perhaps by virtue of certain similarities in their environment. Or was it merely a shortage of imagination (or, dare one suggest, technique?) on the part of the author? In any case, this reviewer found that the sameness of the six characters' narrative voices tended to overpower the fact that they each had their own individual lives and personalities.
Lest one get the wrong impression, this is indeed a beautiful book. Woolf's prose has a sonorous quality that borders on poetry, yet is so exhausting that it's hard to get through more than a few pages at a sitting. The first few dozen pages are especially trying, since we are never formally introduced to the characters, and it takes some time before their personalities are established.
Some critics consider The Waves Virginia Woolf's masterpiece, and certainly it is the most extreme example of the interior monologue she ever produced. But because this review is for the general public rather than the literary press, I can not in good conscience recommend this book. Certainly it's a novel you'll either love or hate, and since you're reading reviews of Virginia Woolf novels, there's at least a chance you'll love it, but I'm giving it two stars, since despite its merits, the average man-on-the street won't get through 10 pages of it. Add one star if you are female, since you are likely more interested in the subtleties of human relationships than most men. Add another star if you majored in English at college, and one more if you've done graduate work in English. Satisfied? For the rest of us, Woolf's To the Lighthouse is a warm, delightful novel about art and family and the passage of time that nearly everyone should enjoy.
Rating: 5
Summary: Do you think you've read Virginia Woolf?
Comment: Even if you've read other Virigina Woolf, you haven't come close to the experience of The Waves. Did you have to read To the Lighthouse for some class back in college? The Waves seems like a totally different author. Perhaps Jacob's Room comes closer, but still The Wave is unique:
The whole text is entirely soliloquys in the first person. No 3rd person description, no omniscient narrator, just the opening of quotation marks, one of the few characters begins to speak, then the ending of quotation marks... beginning once more with the opening quotation marks for the next speaker's soliloquy, and so on and on in waves of thought.
We follow each speaker from early childhood to old age, and we know them intimately by the book's end. Give the book a chance; at first I could only take three or four *pages* at a time, but also looked forward to these few pages every day. Later, I could easily read more and more, and truly the experience was like "waves" of life, lapping over my consciousness.
If you like unique "novels," e.g. Nabokov's Pale Fire (although different it's unique too), this is a must-have. There's nothing else like it, even in Virginia Woolf's body of work.
If you can't take the full load of first-person consciousness, but like her dreamy style, then go for her book of short stories. But I recommend keeping the book, and treating yourself, a few pages at a time... you too will feel at the end of a magnificent life's journey by time you follow each character's thoughts to the end.
Rating: 5
Summary: Enduring monologues are presented with rhythm and impact
Comment: Expertly read by Frances Jeater and superbly enhanced with classical music, The Waves is the succinctly abridged and highly recommended CD audiobook rendition of Virginia Woolf's classic accounting of six friends, ranging from childhood to old age. Enduring monologues are presented with the rhythm and impact of poetry to showcase a complex work of literature that runs the gamut of the difficulties and enduring loyalties of the human experience. 4 digitally mastered CDs, 5 hours 14 minutes.
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Title: To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, Eudora Welty (Introduction) ISBN: 0156907399 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: December, 1989 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf ISBN: 0156628708 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 24 September, 1990 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf, Mary Gordon ISBN: 0156787334 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: December, 1989 List Price(USD): $10.00 |
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Title: The Years by Virginia Woolf ISBN: 0156997010 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 22 October, 1969 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Moments of Being: Second Edition by Virginia Woolf, Jeanne Schulkind ISBN: 0156619180 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: August, 1985 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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