Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf occupies a central place in twentieth-century literature. Her works define the progress of fiction from Edwardian novel to post-Modernist text, and in the decade between 1922 and 1931, with Jacob's Room, Mrs Dalloway, To the Lighthouse and The Waves, she was in the forefront of modernist writing. She was also a prolific journalist and active publisher. In this study Edward Bishop provides an overview of Woolf's life as a writer, explores the connections between her fiction and her criticism, and analyses her major novels, tracing the development of her experimental techniques and her evolving sense of language. Front Matter....Pages i-x The Writer’s Life....Pages 1-16 The Voyage Out: Towards the Far Side of Language....Pages 17-31 ‘Kew Gardens’ and Jacob’s Room: Pursuing ‘It’ and the ‘Greek Spirit’....Pages 32-48 Mrs Dalloway: Writing, Speech and Silence....Pages 49-66 The Essays: The Subversive Process of Metaphor....Pages 67-78 To the Lighthouse: From Social Language to Incantation....Pages 79-97 The Waves: ‘A fin in a waste of waters’....Pages 98-115 Between the Acts: The ‘Orts, Scraps and Fragments’ of Postmodernism....Pages 116-127 Back Matter....Pages 128-144 Each volume in the series is intended to provide an introduction to a writer. In this study the author provides an overview of Virginia Woolf's life and career, discussing her letters and diaries, and analyzing her major novels as he traces the development of her experimental techniques. Edward Bishop. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 139-140) And Index.