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Original poster

Where to start with Virginia Woolf

37 replies

StiffyByngsDogBartholomew · 14/10/2024 22:10

I've never read any Woolf and I'm interested in dipping my toe in as i've a rather irreverent love of Gloomsbury (a very funny radio 4 comedy series sending up thr Bloomsbury set).
For 20th century fiction I like Mapp & Lucia, Noel Coward, PG Wodehouse, Christie, Du Maurier and short stories so Woolf is a bit different from my usual fiction choices. What would you recommend for an easy introduction if there is such a thing ? I was looking at The Lighthouse.

OP posts:
Tortielady · 15/10/2024 14:34

I love Mrs Dalloway and I'm really not a great fan of Woolf's fiction. I prefer her polemical work, but Mrs Dalloway was a revelation. That said, I was at level 3 of an OU literature degree by that time and had traipsed through Camus and one or two even more dreadful than him. I don't think I was hard to please at that stage.

Woolf wrote short stories as well as novels and one of them, 'Mrs Dalloway on Bond Street' was later developed into Mrs Dalloway and is a good starting point. It's set (as is the novel) in the period after the First World War and there's a haunted eeriness about it. You also get a strong sense of the consumer culture that was developing at around that time.

LettyToretto · 15/10/2024 09:28

Oh, I'd also say Mrs D. I loved it.

Orlando probably as your second or third, but just never ever read The Waves. Christ.

Thewalrusandthecarpenter · 15/10/2024 09:19

Definitely To The Lighthouse! Fabulous book and not a difficult read.

PizzaNinja · 15/10/2024 07:54

I rate Orlando as one of the best books I’ve ever read, it absolutely blew me away. It’s very different to her other novels though - in a good way as far as I’m concerned. Whatever you do, don’t read The Waves first, you might lose the will to live, it’s err… very challenging 🫣

Entertainmentcentral · 15/10/2024 06:22

To the Lighthouse. But I don't think you'll finish it it.

JaninaDuszejko · 15/10/2024 05:42

I love Orlando and would recommend that but it's very different to the others with its magical elements. Mrs Dalloway would probably be my next suggestion and is probably the most famous. Watch The Hours on Netflix and if you enjoy that you'll like Mrs Dalloway.

BasiliskStare · 14/10/2024 23:40

Personally I would start with To the Lighthouse - but just my opinion.

Precipice · 14/10/2024 23:17

No33 · 14/10/2024 23:04

I started with a room with a view

That's E. M. Forster. Are you thinking of 'A Room of One's Own'? But then OP is looking for fiction.

No33 · 14/10/2024 23:04

I started with a room with a view

Dappy777 · 14/10/2024 22:55

PermanentTemporary · 14/10/2024 22:12

I'd say Mrs Dalloway. Reading it now in my 50s was a bit of a revelation. I think it's one of those books where the author writes past their own limits.

Yes, I think I'd agree. It's more accessible than To the Lighthouse or Orlando.

Imicola · 14/10/2024 22:19

PermanentTemporary · 14/10/2024 22:12

I'd say Mrs Dalloway. Reading it now in my 50s was a bit of a revelation. I think it's one of those books where the author writes past their own limits.

I was going to say definitely not Mrs Dalloway! I read that one first and thought it so awful I've read no more!

PermanentTemporary · 14/10/2024 22:12

I'd say Mrs Dalloway. Reading it now in my 50s was a bit of a revelation. I think it's one of those books where the author writes past their own limits.

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