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The Waves Paperback – January 1, 1950

by Virginia Woolf (Author)

89 customer reviews

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One of Woolfâs most experimental novels, The Waves presents six characters in monologue - from morning until night, from childhood into old age - against a background of the sea. The result is a glorious chorus of voices that exists not to remark on the passing of events but to celebrate the connection between its various individual parts.

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Series: Harvest/HBJ Book
Paperback: 297 pages
Publisher: Harvest Books (1978)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 9780156949606
ISBN-13: 978-0156949606
ASIN: 0156949601
Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 0.8 x 7.9 inches
Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 89 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #32,815 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #72 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Mystery > Anthologies
- #201 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Horror > Ghosts
- #442 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Horror > Occult

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Lewis Baker

Listen to the Voices of Childhood Friends Surging On the Beaches of Memory

November 1, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

The Waves is a 20th century prose poetic study in childhood relationships. The children are like the author very intelligent and insightful and what a reader takes away is the poetic musical language of remembrances and psychological discoveries of recall from youth and the compounded effect of later life. If you like the language of youth and the discoveries of heartfelt sentiment this may be appealing to you. If you're looking for standard prose storytelling this will not be an easy read. Sample the text and at least try engaging Woolf's extraordinary mind as she unveils the remembrances of the wave-like encounters of current and past friends from childhood. A relatively short work makes the reading of this experimental novel even more approachable for someone new to psychologically complex studies of time recollected from youth.

7 people found this helpful

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Barbara Miller

Poetic Stream of Consciousness of 6 Characters

August 12, 2015

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

The Waves is Virginia Woolf's masterpiece. It reads easily but the many metaphors and the fact that you are dealing with stream of consciousness makes you often pause to review and to see who is "speaking". It is poetic and the writing is beyond fine.

4 people found this helpful

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Phil Clapham

Unique in English literature... if you love language, read this book

January 6, 2014

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I 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).

5 people found this helpful

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judith macdonald

The Waves

June 16, 2014

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

In this soliloquy on the inner life of six friends from childhood to the grave, Virginia Woolf takes the reader to a different experience of reading and even being. The Waves is not an easy read. It is not for the faint-hearted or for those looking for a rollicking story line but more akin to a poetic reflection in the manner of Proust's In Remembrance of Things Past.
Interspersed with beautiful descriptions of the sea, there is a haunting prescience of the watery fate of Virginia Woolf.
A remarkable book. Try it if you are strong enough!

5 people found this helpful

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Cate

Poetry in prose

May 27, 2017

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I underlined so many phrases and sentences in this book. The language is beautiful and the characters' unique perspectives on the meaning of life are enthralling.

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ShannonCamlin

Modernist Masterpiece

July 13, 2018

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I love reading this book and then walking around my neighborhood, enjoying the sights and sounds. Woolf’s work was groundbreaking.

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Rebecca Askew

Unintended Beautiful Prose

August 28, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

This is one long beautiful poem. Though not intended as a poem, it is among the most beautiful and evocative prose I have ever read.

2 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Five Stars

June 24, 2017

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

fine reprint of Woolf's experimental novel. Recommended

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