Moments of Reading: A Virginia Woolf Reading Group discussion

I have just finished reading To the Lighthouse and I feel like I need something, a book or an article, about Virginia Woolf's writing (not a biography!) because I found the book sometimes enjoyable and beautiful, but sometimes enigmatical and difficult. I would really appreciate a recommendation from you.

Hi Maria,

If I'm correct you're looking for something about Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse apart from a biography (not by Virginia Woolf, because then I would recommend Moments of Being, an autobiographical writing).

There is a book called Virginia Woolf and the Poetry of Fiction (ISBN 0-415-00326-6) with a chapter called "To the Lighthouse: an elegy". If you are interested in this single chapter, send me a message.

Another way to understand classics better is to buy the Penguin Classic editions. They have a lot of annotations and good introductions.

Thank you Reddleman! It would be really nice of you to send me the text. I'll watch out for the Penguin Classics next time I summon the courage to read VW.
Reddleman wrote: "Hi Maria,

If I'm correct you're looking for something about Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse apart from a biography (not by Virginia Woolf, because then I would recommend Moments of Being, an au..."

Reddleman wrote: "Hi Maria,

If I'm correct you're looking for something about Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse apart from a biography (not by Virginia Woolf, because then I would recommend Moments of Being, an au..."

Hello Reddleman!
It's been a while since you posted this, but I would also be very happy to read the chapter you refer to in McNichol's book. Would it be too much to ask that you send it to me?
Thank and best wishes!

Hi Monica,

This group has not been very active lately. However, we can always revivify it :). There is one novel I haven't read yet of Virginia Woolf which is The Years. Maybe we can start with that one and see who will join us. I would also be interested in re-reading Mrs Dalloway or The Waves.

The Voyage out is one of Virginia Woolf's earlier (Victorian) novels before she found her own voice (though both The Voyage out and Night and Day are good novels). Finish The Voyage Out and then we will start reading The Years. How much time do you need to finish The Voyage out and to acquire The Years?

I will set things up to see if more people are interested in reading The Years.

No worries. I need to finish my current novel as well. Let's say the first of April.

For someone reading through the works of VW on one’s own, I recommend starting out with The Voyage Out, a milquetoast intro. Then wade in some more with Night and Day and then with Jacob’s Room. By then one is chest deep in VW and can paddle and swim around with the lovely major works.

Agnes wrote: "For someone reading through the works of VW on one’s own, I recommend starting out with The Voyage Out, a milquetoast intro. Then wade in some more with Night and Day and then with Jacob’s Room. By..."

I disagree. The Voyage Out and Night and Day are very different from Virginia Woolf's later voice, which she developed from Jacob's Room onwards. Reading these two novels will give you a wrong impression on Virginia Woolf.

The Voyage Out and Night and Day are interesting novels when you want to know how she wrote before Jacob's Room, but these are late Victorian novels. In comparison to her later work, her first two novels were mediocre.

If you want to start with Virginia Woolf, I would recommend either Jacob's Room or Mrs Dalloway.

Yay! I read all of VW’s novels chronologically during the 2020 covid-19 pandemic shutdowns!

My fav VW novel may have been FLUSH because it brought me into the life of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, whose oh so romantic poetic lines beginning ‘When Our Two Souls Stand-Up Erect and Strong’ I once recited at my first wedding, many moons ago, so I’d obviously liked EBB a lot.

Recently I came across some Black Lives Matter info that EBB’s family were actually slave-owners in the Caribbean and that she herself was of mixed race. But she did escape to Italy with her English husband and father of her Italian-speaking son, lived in Italian, never returned to England, wrote great romantic poetry and died in Italy.

All that from reading VW.

My 2nd fav was Jacob’s Room.