Pokój Jakuba

Virginia Woolf

Subtelny świat kobiet i heroiczny świat mężczyzn Mały chłopiec bawi się na plaży w Kornwalii. Student toczy płomienne dyskusje o literaturze z kolegami na uniwersytecie w Cambridge. Młodzieniec wyrusza w edukacyjną podróż po Europie. W Londynie, Paryżu i Grecji poznaje smak miłosnej przygody. Historię Jakuba Flandersa, młodego mężczyzny, który zginął podczas I wojny światowej, opowiadają kobiety jego życia. Podana we fragmentach jako kolaż sytuacji, gestów, rozmów i wrażeń, a przy tym bardzo liryczna i nastrojowa, dla Woolf staje się pretekstem do namysłu nad ludzką percepcją i niemożnością pełnego zrozumienia drugiego człowieka. Pokój Jakuba to pierwsza eksperymentalna powieść Virginii Woolf. Jest refleksją na temat różnicy między światem męskim i kobiecym, ale też mocnym manifestem pacyfistycznym. Choć została napisana prawie sto lat temu, jej trzeźwy, podszyty smutkiem styl brzmi bardzo współcześnie. Juliusz Kurkiewicz, Gazeta Wyborcza () w tym właśnie utworze zarysowuje się cały późniejszy krąg zainteresowań, magia opisów, subtelność stylu. Widać tu także zaczątki wykorzystywania strumienia świadomości, który z czasem stanie się jedną z najbardziej rozpoznawalnych cech tego pisarstwa. () Fragmentaryczność gestów, słów, doznań, przypadkowe spotkania i kruchość życia to właśnie starała się uchwycić i zamknąć w opowieści późniejsza autorka Orlanda, by w ten sposób wyrazić własny ogląd świata i zatrzymać na zawsze migawkowe piękno konkretnych chwil. Milena Schefs, Nowe Książki Zmysłowość opisów i dbałość o szczegół jedynie podsyca wrażenie świata podszytego nicością dając przede wszystkim poczucie prześlizgiwania się po powierzchni, fasadzie maskującej pustkę. Katarzyna Czeczot, Tygodnik Powszechny

The Moment and Other Essays

Virginia Woolf

From the first essay of volume: The Moment and Other Essays, a multi-layered portrait of a summer evening in the English countryside in the company of friends, we are delighted with Wolfes perception and her ability to articulate them clearly. A series of sensory descriptions the rumble of an airplane, the night darkness of an night, the flight of an owl give way to a thought no less important, even inconspicuous: If you are young, the future truly lies like a piece of glass, making it tremble and tremble. If you are old, the past lies on the present, like thick glass, causing it to oscillate, distorting it.

The Voyage Out

Virginia Woolf

Rachel Vinrace sets out on a voyage from the confines of her home in England, where she is raised by her spinster aunts, to the exotic coast of South America in the early twentieth century. But more than just the physical journey from one shore to another, The Voyage Out is a story of the transformation of this essentially unworldly girl to a more self-possessed woman in love with the seemingly enlightened yet searching young writer, Terence Hewet. Her experiences, from a first kiss to a surprising flowering of real love, may inspire the reader to reflect on gender roles in society, love among intellectuals, and the strivings and sorrows of life. Some of the most lovely and illuminating writing flowed from Virginia Woolfs hand as she wrote the words to describe the conversations as well as the innermost thoughts of her characters. Complex characters, vivid and beautiful descriptions of the exotic surroundings, and very real human internal struggles all make for a brilliant novel that one should savor slowly and thoroughly.

The Waves

Virginia Woolf

The novel is about six friends who have known since childhood: Bernard, Louis, Neville, Susie, Ron and Ginny. After a few key episodes, their life appears from early childhood to the last days. As in most Virginia Woolf books, the plot as such is absent, it is entirely focused on the inner world of its characters, the flow of their thoughts and feelings, the whole story is an uncontrollable, bubbling flow, stream of thoughts, stream of life, stream of time.

The Years

Virginia Woolf

The action of the novel Years, one of the most significant works of W. Woolf, takes place over fifty years from the 1880s to the mid 30s of the twentieth century. Victorian traditions are breaking down, cars and planes are appearing, the First World War is covering Europe... All this serves as the backdrop for the family saga the history of the Pargiter family: Colonel Abel Pargiter, his wife, lover, seven children, their wives, husbands, numerous relatives...

Three Guineas

Virginia Woolf

The story of how women can prevent war when they are deprived of education, professions and the public sphere. The name Three Guineas comes from Wolfes reflection on whether she should support three different reasons for giving a guinea donation this creature; a society to end the war, a campaign to support the restoration of the womens college, and an organization to promote the employment of women in professions.

To the Lighthouse

Virginia Woolf

An exquisite novel in which times of action are mixed and intertwined, and the summer spent by the wealthy Ramsey family on the Isle of Skye turns out to be a kind of British chronicle of lost time a fragile, almost idyllic time, doomed to be destroyed soon by the First World War. Children will grow up someone will survive and grow up, someone will lay their heads on the battlefields. Small failures and grievances will be forgotten. The old house will be abandoned, the garden will grow. But will the dream of a trip to a distant lighthouse come true even for one of Ramseys children? ..