Where to start with Virginia Woolf

[StiffyByngsDogBartholomew]

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.

The film of Mrs Dalloway is v good...perhaps see if you enjoy it.

I had to read La Peste and L'Etranger at school and haven't really thought about them since...not sure if I'd return.

I seem to remember that her short stories are very very beautiful (and more accessible than Mrs Dalloway or To the Lightjhouse). Kew Gardens, especially, sticks in my mind as a kind of jewel.

I haven't read Flush, but I heard an adaptation of it on the radio and it sounded surprisingly sweet and gentle. If you are a fan of things like Mapp & Lucia, Noel Coward, PG Wodehouse, it might be a good entry point?

Is that The Hours ? I saw it when it came out and really found it heavy going (as in intense/emotionally draining) and had to watch it in two sittings

No there's the film Mrs Dalloway with Vanessa Regrave.

Liked The Hours too.

A lot of people will suggest starting with Mrs Dalloway, but I’d recommend To the Lighthouse, particularly if you love being taken to a very physical place (St Ives). It’s like reading a painting.

Also fond of Night and Day.

Her diaries are fascinating. Try the much compacted Writer’s Diary, edited by her nephew, Quentin Bell. Absolutely inspirational about the day to day craft and grind of writing as well as her ideas.

Another vote here too. Great books

I'm off to Cornwall on Monday near St Ives so maybe this is telling me something :)

I love To the Lighthouse, I don't think it's a difficult one to start with. It has a very strong sense of place, it would be perfect to read it by the sea

I'd start with A Room of One's Own. Then Mrs Dalloway ( you could watch The Hours too). Then Orlando (read up on Vita Sackville West). Then To the Lighthouse, and then The Waves (stunning).

I was the other way round. I really liked The Waves but Orlando bored me silly (apart from fly loo which really tickled me).

I really like The Plague and The Outsider. I wonder why those of you who have expressed reservations about them here don't like them?
I've only read them in English, as my French is nowhere near good enough to read them in the original. And I do remember thinking there was something quite stilted about the translation, as if English couldn't really cope with the very French qualities of their abstract nature.
But I liked them very much. Part of what I like is the plainness of the storytelling. And I think he does a really good job of making his characters into characteristic philosophical types without allowing that to drain them of human interest.

@ReadWithScepticism i read them at 17 preparing for Cambridge entrance interviews so the subject matter didn't really do much for me at that age, i just couldn't relate. I enjoyed La Peste more as I was interested in the history of medicine and the plague. I'm sure I would get more out of them with 31 more years life experience under my belt.
Madame Bovary, on the other hand has remained a lifelong love.