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The Waves Paperback – January 1, 1978
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Innovative and deeply poetic, The Waves is often regarded as Virginia Woolf’s masterpiece. It begins with six children—three boys and three girls—playing in a garden by the sea, and follows their lives as they grow up, experience friendship and love, and grapple with the death of their beloved friend Percival. Instead of describing their outward expressions of grief, Woolf draws her characters from the inside, revealing their inner lives: their aspirations, their triumphs and regrets, their awareness of unity and isolation.
- Print length304 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherHarvest Books
- Publication dateJanuary 1, 1978
- Dimensions7.98 x 5.34 x 0.71 inches
- ISBN-109780156949606
- ISBN-13978-0156949606
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| Customer Reviews |
4.1 out of 5 stars 5,133
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4.1 out of 5 stars 3,836
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4.4 out of 5 stars 5,062
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4.3 out of 5 stars 1,611
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4.4 out of 5 stars 104
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4.2 out of 5 stars 284
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“Clear, bright, burnished, at once marvelously accurate and subtly connotative. The pure, delicate sensibility found in this language and the moods that it expresses are a true kind of poetry.”—The New York Times —
About the Author
Product details
- ASIN : 0156949601
- Publisher : Harvest Books
- Publication date : January 1, 1978
- Language : English
- Print length : 304 pages
- ISBN-10 : 9780156949606
- ISBN-13 : 978-0156949606
- Item Weight : 9.6 ounces
- Dimensions : 7.98 x 5.34 x 0.71 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #38,212 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #91 in Ghost Fiction
- #832 in Classic Literature & Fiction
- #2,813 in Literary Fiction (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors

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Virginia Woolf is now recognized as a major twentieth-century author, a great novelist and essayist and a key figure in literary history as a feminist and a modernist. Born in 1882, she was the daughter of the editor and critic Leslie Stephen, and suffered a traumatic adolescence after the deaths of her mother, in 1895, and her step-sister Stella, in 1897, leaving her subject to breakdowns for the rest of her life. Her father died in 1904 and two years later her favourite brother Thoby died suddenly of typhoid.
With her sister, the painter Vanessa Bell, she was drawn into the company of writers and artists such as Lytton Strachey and Roger Fry, later known as the Bloomsbury Group. Among them she met Leonard Woolf, whom she married in 1912, and together they founded the Hogarth Press in 1917, which was to publish the work of T. S. Eliot, E. M. Forster and Katherine Mansfield as well as the earliest translations of Freud. Woolf lived an energetic life among friends and family, reviewing and writing, and dividing her time between London and the Sussex Downs. In 1941, fearing another attack of mental illness, she drowned herself.
Her first novel, The Voyage Out, appeared in 1915, and she then worked through the transitional Night and Day (1919) to the highly experimental and impressionistic Jacob's Room (1922). From then on her fiction became a series of brilliant and extraordinarily varied experiments, each one searching for a fresh way of presenting the relationship between individual lives and the forces of society and history. She was particularly concerned with women's experience, not only in her novels but also in her essays and her two books of feminist polemic, A Room of One's Own (1929) and Three Guineas (1938).
Her major novels include Mrs Dalloway (1925), the historical fantasy Orlando (1928), written for Vita Sackville-West, the extraordinarily poetic vision of The Waves (1931), the family saga of The Years (1937), and Between the Acts (1941). All these are published by Penguin, as are her Diaries, Volumes I-V, and selections from her essays and short stories.
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Customers find the book's prose beautiful and evocative, with one noting its uniquely lyrical style. Moreover, the narrative style is praised as a brilliant experimental novel, with one customer highlighting how the story is told from six perspectives. Additionally, the book receives positive feedback for its readability, with one customer describing it as one of the most important books in English literature.
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Customers praise the writing quality of the book, describing it as beautiful, evocative, and poetic, with one customer noting its uniquely lyrical style.
"...The language is uniquely lyrical; Woolf's words almost paint pictures on the page. This is not to say that The Waves is for everyone...." Read more
"...self, language, consciousness, and so on and there are some tremendously beautiful lines and insights that I will return to over the years so the..." Read more
"...where a natural force, like the wind, narrates, but the literary device is so very effective as the wind presents the family with no prejudices -..." Read more
"...of course, a brilliant experimental novel by one of the greatest minds of English literature. Not for everyone, but the writing is astonishing...." Read more
Customers find the book highly readable and brilliant, with one describing it as the most important book in English literature.
"...to a desert island finds, for me, one of its answers here in this wonderful, unique novel..." Read more
"...lines and insights that I will return to over the years so the book is worth reading...." Read more
"The Waves is an extraordinary book, narrated by the wind that swirls around a family and their beach home for decades...." Read more
"...Overall, this book is a great read, especially for those who might be unfamiliar with Woolf's work." Read more
Customers appreciate the narrative style of the book, describing it as a brilliant experimental novel. One customer notes that the story is told from six perspectives, while another mentions how it explores the value of life.
"...There are lots of interesting themes in the novel involving the nature of identity, the self, language, consciousness, and so on and there are some..." Read more
"...Now, while I recognize and can appreciate its poetry and experimentation, it comes off as overly pretentious..." Read more
"It is, of course, a brilliant experimental novel by one of the greatest minds of English literature...." Read more
"...The story is told from six perspectives; it follows three boys and three girls through childhood, adolescence, and adulthood...." Read more
Customers appreciate the pacing of the book, with one customer describing it as Woolf's masterpiece and another noting its experimental nature.
"...Woolf’s work was groundbreaking." Read more
"This is Woolf's masterpiece. If you read one Virginia Woolf book, read this." Read more
"fine reprint of Woolf's experimental novel. Recommended" Read more
"Perfect example of classic Woolf..." Read more
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Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2014Format: PaperbackVerified PurchaseI have been a devoted fan of Virginia Woolf since I was a teenager and first discovered the brilliance of her writing in "To The Lighthouse"... after which I devoured everything she had written, including her diaries and essays. There is nothing else like The Waves in the whole of English literature, before or since. The best summary of it I have ever heard was the author Jeanette Winterson's comment that it represented "a 200-page insult to mediocrity". Indeed it does.
Six characters, followed from childhood to old age, narrating what they see, think and feel, always in the present tense. As with her other novels, Woolf's insights into the individual's inner realm of emotion and thought are keen and complex. But the true magic of the book lies in the writing and the way all this is expressed. The language is uniquely lyrical; Woolf's words almost paint pictures on the page.
This is not to say that The Waves is for everyone. So try this simple test: pick it off the shelf in a bookstore and read the first dozen or so pages. You will likely have one of two reactions: either that it is extraordinary, magical prose poetry, or a less prosaic "Huh?" If you're in the latter category, don't read the rest... and if you're still curious about Woolf, start with To The Lighthouse or Mrs Dalloway, both of which are more conventional in their form (though Woolf's work can rarely be termed conventional).
I return to this book every few years as I myself advance in age and can relate more directly to a different part of the characters' lives. The old dinner party question about which three or four books one would take to a desert island finds, for me, one of its answers here in this wonderful, unique novel (for the record, the others would be Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov, Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, some good trash - maybe James Clavell's "Shogun" - and an anthology of poetry of my own choosing).
- Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2024Format: PaperbackVerified PurchaseThis book arrived on time, was in packaging that would prevent damage from humidity.
- Reviewed in the United States on April 27, 2020Format: PaperbackVerified PurchaseFor the first 50 or 100 pages of The Waves I was enthralled. Late in the novel Woolf has a character muse on the blurry outlines of our everyday consciousness where there is a "rushing stream of broken dreams, nursery rhymes, street cries, half-finished sentences and sights...There is nothing one can fish up in a spoon; nothing one can call an event. Yet it is alive too and deep, this stream" (255-256). Woolf has set herself the task of describing six lives from the standpoint of this stream which can never truly be captured in language and the novel is at times revelatory. One learns a lot about oneself reading this book.
However, it is difficult to sustain for 300 pages. While there are priceless gems scattered throughout the whole book after 50 or 100 pages it becomes a bit repetitive and tedious and I found myself longing for the surface. It just felt like too much to be submerged in this stream for 300 straight pages. I think in general there needs to be rhythm in works of fiction. If there is a climax there also have to be duller sections and periods of build up and return. If there are revelations or epiphanies they need to be separated by periods of routine. If there is profound poetry there also need to be sections of plain prose. This novel seemed to me to be an attempt at pure poetry, every line made an attempt to be deep and profound, every moment needed to give birth to some new epiphany, and it is too much. We lose the rhythm of the waves and of life. The novel was missing the rhythmic returns to normalcy that are necessary to highlight the moments of exceptional clarity and beauty.
There are lots of interesting themes in the novel involving the nature of identity, the self, language, consciousness, and so on and there are some tremendously beautiful lines and insights that I will return to over the years so the book is worth reading. It is also a tremendous feat to have written this book and I have the utmost respect and admiration for Woolf for not only attempting it but succeeding as well as anyone possibly could. But I don't think the experiment was ultimately entirely successful. We cannot live in the stream. We can dive occasionally and bring back a pearl or a shiny rock but we also need to breathe the air and forget about the stream for extended periods of time. While I gathered some pearls along the way, and am grateful for them, by the time I finished the book I was ready for some fresh air.
- Reviewed in the United States on August 14, 2023Format: KindleVerified PurchaseI was concerned at the outset, the style of writing beong quite unconventional, even by today’s standards. Then, I fell in love woth the book. Truly writing as an art form. I am so happy I found this book.
- Reviewed in the United States on December 22, 2013Format: PaperbackVerified PurchaseThe Waves is an extraordinary book, narrated by the wind that swirls around a family and their beach home for decades. I have never read another book where a natural force, like the wind, narrates, but the literary device is so very effective as the wind presents the family with no prejudices - just as an observer that really is a part of the family and at the same time, has distance that allows for pure observation. To me, one of the most important books in English literature. The device does not feel like a device. At first, it is hard to understand where the narration is coming from - as the book starts with the wind narrating. But easily, as one reads further, one falls into pace with that wind, which is so unsentimental that a certain purity of observation is achieved. Really amazing.
- Reviewed in the United States on March 15, 2025I would have loved this more if I read it when I was in college. Now, while I recognize and can appreciate its poetry and experimentation, it comes off as overly pretentious (but maybe that’s on me for becoming more cynical?). Still brilliant, it was just a slog to get through.
Top reviews from other countries
BonnieReviewed in the United Kingdom on September 12, 20245.0 out of 5 stars Good
Good quality and fast delivery
Amazon customerReviewed in India on February 21, 20185.0 out of 5 stars The waves, a review.
As always vintage classics with red spine are so beautiful. Font size is big. With two introducing essays, which is very helpful in understanding the genre of stream of consciousness. In which the novel is based upon. Mrs.Woolf's ideas are so astonishingly same with tendency to create vivid imagery. The waves has brought me closer to nature like a few good books have.
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MickyReviewed in Germany on July 9, 20205.0 out of 5 stars Gut
Schöne Ausgabe
Amazon CustomerReviewed in Canada on May 24, 20195.0 out of 5 stars Waves
Deceptive title. Not really about waves. 10/10
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BereniceReviewed in Mexico on January 2, 20245.0 out of 5 stars Excelente
Obviamente la calidad de la autora se refleja en todas sus obras.








