Rare Books

The waves

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Description: Set on the coast of England against the vivid background of the sea, The Waves introduces six characters -- three men and three women -- who are grappling with the death of a beloved friend, Percival. Instead of describing their outward expressions of grief, Virginia Woolf draws her characters from the inside, revealing them through their thoughts and interior soliloquies. As their understanding of nature's trials grows, the chorus of narrative voices blends together in miraculous harmony, remarking not only on the inevitable death of individuals but on the eternal connection of everyone. The novel that most epitomizes Virginia Woolf's theories of fiction in the working form, The Waves is an amazing book very much ahead of its time. It is a poetic dreamscape, visual, experimental, and thrilling.
Type: Rare Books(Opens in new tab)
Publication date: [1931]
Call number: 660888
Creator

The years

Rare Books

As the Pargiters, a middle-class London family, move from the oppressive confines of the Victorian home of the 1880s to the 'present day' of the 1930s, they are weighed down by the pressures of war, the social strictures of patriarchy, capitalism and Empire, and the rise of Fascism. Engaging with a painful struggle between utopian hopefulness and crippled with despair, the novel is a powerful indictment of 'Victorianism' and its values. "The Years", written in 1937, was the most popular of Virginia Woolf's novels during her lifetime.

491274

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Leonard Woolf letters to Clive and Julian Bell

Manuscripts

Eighteen letters by Woolf to fellow Bloomsbury friend Clive Bell and nephew Julian Bell discuss British politics prior to WWII and give details of Woolf's involvement in the League of Nations and the Labor Party. There are references to Virginia Woolf throughout the letters, as he discusses family, travel plans, and other personal matters

mssHM 57680-57697

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Miscellaneous envelopes from Woolf to Sydney-Turner

Manuscripts

The collection consists primarily of letters from Woolf to Saxon Sydney-Turner, a college roommate and friend. Thirty-eight letters date from Woolf's college days at Cambridge, twenty-two are from the period when Woolf served as a civil servant in Sri Lanka, and four letters date from the period after his return to England in 1911. One letter was written from Spain during his honeymoon with Virginia. Although most of the letters do not concern literary matters, there are two poems by Woolf in the collection: "2:30 A.M." and "To Ponamma."

HM Miscellaneous Folder 2.

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Leonard Sidney Woolf note to Saxon Arnold Sydney-Turner

Manuscripts

HM 42181.

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Correspondence and documents

Manuscripts

mssHM 42119-42183

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Leonard Woolf Letters

Manuscripts

Letters from English writer Leonard Woolf to Saxon Arnold Sydney-Turner, a college roommate and friend and one of the group of "Apostles" at Cambridge. The letters tell of Woolf's activities and projects while on vacation from Cambridge, of his life as a Civil Servant in Sri Lanka, and a few treat the period after his return to England. Thirty-eight letters date from Woolf's college days at Cambridge and they treat a variety of scholastic subjects (his reading of Plato, Byron etc.) on which he was working during his vacations. Lytton Strachey is mentioned frequently in the letters as some incident concerning him or a fragment of a letter from him is reported. Twenty-two letters date from the period when Woolf served as a Civil Servant in Sri Lanka and they are written from a number of cities and remote outposts throughout the country (Jaffna, Kandy, Hanbantota, Marichchukkadi etc.). Woolf describes with humor his life in Sri Lanka, especially the change in the state of his mind brought on by the long hours of work, the heat, and the isolation from the kind of society he had been used to. Among other things, he describes a public hanging, a meeting of a local Shakespeare society, and his experience of becoming ill in a remote village on one of his circuits of the territory. Four letters date from the period after his return to England in 1911. One letter was written from Spain during his honeymoon there, describing his and Virginia's efforts to communicate with the locals and the omnipresent smell of "stale urine" Most of the letters do not concern literary matters. There are two poems by Woolf contained in the letters: 1) "2:30 AM" in a letter dated Apr. 17, 1901 (HM 42126) 2) "To Ponamma" in a letter dated June 12, 1910 (HM 42179) A "chronological list of mystics", written during Woolf's school days groups various "mystics" by time and nationality. (HM 42119)

mssHM 42119-42183

The waves

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The years

Leonard Woolf letters to Clive and Julian Bell

Miscellaneous envelopes from Woolf to Sydney-Turner

Leonard Sidney Woolf note to Saxon Arnold Sydney-Turner

Correspondence and documents

Leonard Woolf Letters