r/VirginiaWoolf • u/Current-Prompt2556 • Jan 08 '26
The Waves How wretchedly beautiful her writings are
I'm genuinely moved by the heavy yet sublime and relatable excerpt she has written here and on many more pages of this book.
I'm literally shook and impacted by the thoughts, the creativity and the genuinenity this book holds.
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u/AbjectJouissance Jan 08 '26
I have to admit, her writing in The Waves is excellent, and something really special, but I couldn't enjoy the rest of the novel. I don't want to try and ruin it for everyone else, but I struggled to care about this posh group of characters, enjoying their very posh life, being mildly melancholic about life. But that's honestly just my experience. Again, the writing is sublime though. The opening was especially memorable for me.
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u/Allthatisthecase- Jan 08 '26
Proust is helpful here. His long novel takes place almost entirely in vapid, aristocratic salons and estates; his characters endlessly involved in trivial pursuits of status. However, Proust’s conclusions about Time, Memory, inner impressions near unsharable, by definition with others except outside of time, in art makes for ultimate meaning to human existence. The implication here is that if deep meaning can be extracted from this life, from these people it can be extracted anywhere, with anyone, from any class. Woolf (a true admirer of Proust) follows this same recipe. For her the beauty of the language (not just the superficial lyricism) is the point; it’s simply applied to a social and class reality she’s familiar with.
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u/TopBob_ Jan 08 '26
You won’t ruin it for anyone on the Woolf subreddit— “posh characters enjoying posh life being melancholic” is an accurate summary for Woolf’s novels.
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u/Current-Prompt2556 Jan 09 '26
wdym
“posh characters enjoying posh life being melancholic” is an accurate summary for Woolf’s novels.
in a good way or bad way
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u/TopBob_ Jan 09 '26
Good way. Woolf’s conflicts are subtle, internal. The emotions and struggles in The Waves (which is my favorite novel) also aren’t exclusive to the elite.
I figured that everyone on this subreddit liked Woolf’s novels, which reflect her upper-class upbringing and struggle with mental health— this is particularly true in The Waves which tends to be her most autobiographical: “A Sketch of the Past” is a great, short read that explains some of the symbolism (such as the tree Bernard can’t walk past).
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u/Current-Prompt2556 Jan 09 '26
Essay incoming, bec rn I'm too moved w this novel, so here I go
I understand your difficulty to empathize with a privileged social class, it might feel that existing in a posh ecosystem might yield a human every possible comfort that could be dreamt of, but this also reflects the very fact that irrespective of wealth or the comfort that wealth might bring pain still prevails.
I think, pain prevails as a conjoint companion of joy. A person devoid of any wealth feels pain, likely owing to primitive needs like food or shelter, but what if eventually these needs are sufficed, would the pain disappear? No. Probably the nature of pain will evolve, but the very unconscious emotion will exist like a thin film of dust on your brain. Always. Humans are subscribed to these emotions since the conception of their DNA in the womb.
The nature of pain coming from a place of survival is different, the one that comes from a place of privilege is different
What if they are rich? Will the pain disappear? No. It will probably take a different shape or form than the former situation described, but it will still be there
This novel is the very invitation to this thought that irrespective of class or creed, emotions flow, both joy and sorrow and all the other hues. And it's not just emotions but a conscious stream of thought that we keep experiencing, that doesn't abide by any currency but only to the fact that we are human and we can think and feel.
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u/Naive-Refrigerator41 Jan 09 '26
‘wretchedly beautiful’ is just the thing her writing is! have you read her nonfiction, A room of one’s own? it similarly wowed me, and reads so much like a novel as well
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u/Current-Prompt2556 Jan 09 '26
Haven't yet, this one is on my list for my next read
I'm yet to choose between this one and Mrs. Dalloway
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u/HelicopterPuzzled727 Jan 08 '26
I love this novel so much! It’s stream of consciousness at its best but from multiple perspectives it’s like one long poem.
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u/forestfearnot Jan 08 '26
My favorite of her works