I have never read anything by Virginia Woolf except the small pieces you post on here. I am planning to add her to my reading list. Which of her books do you think is a decent representation of her emotions and maybe even hints at her value systems? I’d love any thoughts and direction you might have, thank you!
I’m sorry I didn’t get to this right away! But thank you for asking it and allowing me to procrastinate :P
I’m not 100% sure I know what you mean by “her emotions” and “value systems,” but, in general, I usually recommend that those picking up Woolf for the first time start with A Room of One’s Own (and her essay “Modern Fiction”) and then move to either Mrs. Dalloway or To the Lighthouse. And then Jacob’s Room and Orlando. (and on and on and on)
A Room of One’s Own was formed out of two lectures Woolf gave and functions as an essay – a piece of nonfiction – but Woolf also uses fiction, narrative, storytelling, metaphor, and literary allusion throughout as rhetorical devices to construct her argument. Thinking about how and for what purpose she uses fiction as a tool, both to bolster her argument and to push the reader toward her ideas about feminism, or a sort of “post-feminism” in the later chapters, has always been interesting to me – and helpful in starting to gain an understanding of Woolf’s literary project as a whole (not that I think that’s something that can or should be fully understood/known). It’s also fairly short and will give you a taste of her writing style, while also introducing to you to some of her “values” (e.g., female education, equal access to academic institutions [which she also criticizes], the importance – and burden – of women’s writing, the necessity of compiling and thinking about a “history” of women’s writing, particular aesthetic criteria, etc.).
“Modern Fiction” will give you insight into what Woolf sets out for her generation of writers to do – to put an emphasis on the “dark parts” of the psyche, interiority, perceptions of character (i.e., how a character perceives what is both internal and external):
I think Woolf, in all of her novels, investigates the major philosophical problems the modernist writers are concerned with – how do we know/understand each other? how do we know what we know (what is the basis for our knowledge)? who are we and what is our place in the world? to what degree do memories compose who we are? to what extent can identity be coherent and how do we work with a disparate, fragmented sense of self? if we are all in a constant state of flux (“adrift in language in the sea of modernity,” as my prof once said), can we ever fully know ourselves – or another human being? Which then leads to the modernist perspective that we are all inhibited from any overarching Truth™ because all we have at our disposal is language (and language is inherently incomplete and therefore limited and fallible).
These questions are, arguably, most concentratedly (and beautifully, IMO) pursued in The Waves, but I would definitely hold off on that one until you’ve gotten a taste for Woolf and feel comfortable with her writing. Personally, I read A Room first, then To the Lighthouse, and then Mrs. Dalloway on my own – and then I took a class on Woolf and we went in this order: A Room, Jacob’s Room, Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, Orlando, The Waves, Three Guineas, and Between the Acts. Woolf of course wrote more novels (and short stories, essays, letters, diaries, etc. – all of which I recommend checking out!) than those I’ve listed, but they provide a starting point. It’s entirely subjective, but I think I still find To the Lighthouse to be the most “approachable” Woolf text (and I even found this in the class I took; the students who never really warmed up to Woolf and struggled throughout the semester found some relief in ThL) – but that might not be important or relevant for you.
I don’t have any data to back this up, but I think that Mrs. Dalloway is probably the most commonly taught Woolf novel (like in survey courses or classes that aren’t on Woolf specifically) – and that might speak to its comprehensiveness; it can be categorized as an anti-war, an anti-imperialism, and a feminist novel – and a text that offers critiques of the upperclass, of the medical profession (particularly in dealing with mental illness), and of heteronormativity. Its prose is also incredibly beautiful and includes one of my favorite portraits of female agency – of a woman, with a diffuse identity, who is able to coalesce and pull together her disparate parts when she needs to act/be effective (side note – Margaret in Gaskell’s North and South is another excellent example of a woman with these strengths):
This is a novel of an answer! You definitely did not ask for this! Apologies, but I will do almost anything to procrastinate – especially thinking/writing about Woolf. I’ve been starved of Woolf content since the semester started and I had to put my thesis prep on hold, so thanks for this!
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