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'i, Who Would Wish To Feel Close Over Me The Protective Waves Of The Ordinary, Catch With The Tail Of My Eye Some Far Horizon.' Intensely Visionary Yet Absorbed With The Everyday; Experimental, Daring And Challenging, The Waves Is Regarded By Many As Virginia Woolf's Greatest Achievement. It Follows A Set Of Six Friends From Childhood To Middle Age As They Experience The World Around Them And Explore Who They Are And What It Means To Be Alive. As The Contours Of Their Lives Are Revealed, A Unique Novel Is Slowly Unveiled. Enfolded Within Woolf's Lyrical And Mysterious Language, The Mundane Takes On A Startling New Significance While Distant Pasts Are No Less In Play Than The Clamorous Sounds And Kaleidoscopic Sights Of The Modern City. Yet Precisely Where The Alluringly Enigmatic Pages Of The Waves Are Leading, And What Deeper Meanings Are Held Within Its Undulant Chapters And Shimmering Interludes, Are Questions That Have Never Ceased To Enthral Readers And Critics Alike. In This New Edition David Bradshaw Considers The Spellbinding Oddness And Originality Of The Waves, Helping The Reader To Negotiate A Way Though This Most Poetic And Haunting Of Novels. About The Series: For Over 100 Years Oxford World's Classics Has Made Available The Widest Range Of Literature From Around The Globe. Each Affordable Volume Reflects Oxford's Commitment To Scholarship, Providing The Most Accurate Text Plus A Wealth Of Other Valuable Features, Including Expert Introductions By Leading Authorities, Helpful Notes To Clarify The Text, Up-to-date Bibliographies For Further Study, And Much More.
Six individuals navigate the shifting currents of existence from childhood through middle age, attempting to reconcile their internal identities with the external world. The narrative follows the lives of Bernard, Susan, Rhoda, Neville, Jinny, and Louis as they grapple with the passage of time and the nature of human consciousness. Woolf employs a non-linear, stream-of-consciousness framework, utilizing soliloquies that reveal the characters' inner thoughts rather than traditional dialogue. The physical world serves as a backdrop to their psychological development, with the rhythmic movement of the sea acting as a constant, symbolic presence throughout their lives.
Discussion often centers on the radical departure from conventional storytelling found in the novel's structure. Readers frequently highlight the poetic intensity of the prose and the difficulty of tracking the shifting voices of the six protagonists. Critics often examine the balance between the characters' individual isolation and their collective experience of time. Many note that the book functions more as a meditation on human existence than a standard character study. The atmospheric quality of the writing remains a primary point of interest for those analyzing modernist techniques.
Page Count:
256
Publication Date:
2014-01-01
Publisher:
Oup Oxford
ISBN-10:
0191646172
ISBN-13:
9780191646171
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