Externally the structure of the novel is more or less conventional. The work reminds us of Jane Austen in its deliberate attention to details and the great care brought into exercise in writing it and in its keen observation of the self-conscious behaviour of a small group of people. The mysterious immensity and loneliness of existence haunts and mind of Rachel Vinrace, the central character. It suggests or even narrates deep disturbances in the inner lives of men and women. As the title suggests the novel deals with the author’s journey into an unknown land and like the first novel of any other writer or writers it lacks in strength and conviction. It is her first novel and was published in 1915. By reading them the students will be able to form a good idea of her art.

Brief outline sketches of her major novels are given below. But she is primarily known as a novelist and her reputation is based on a few novels, which are great works of art. She wrote a number of short stories and some biographies, one fanciful, and a fragment on the life of Robert Browning, narrated through the imagined memories of Flush, Elizabeth Barrett’s dog (name of Browning’s wife) and the other a full-length biography of Roger Fry. Her best works of criticism are The Common Reader I, The Common Reader II and The Death of the Moth and the Moment. She earned at first the reputation of a critic of great insight and sound literary taste and judgement. After her marriage she wrote profusely for the Hogarth Press, which brought out the works of distinguished men of letters of the day. She started her literary career by writing articles and essays for literary journals. Virginia Woolf comes from a respectable family of high literary and cultural standards.

The waves by virginia woolf