Questions tagged [virginia-woolf]

Questions about the works of early 20th-century English writer Virginia Woolf (née Stephen; 1882-1941) or her life as a writer.

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Virginia Woolf's "Mrs Dalloway": stream of consciousness or free indirect speech?

I have doubts about Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway and the use of stream of consciousness vs free indirect speech in this novel. I recently heard an academic on the BBC say that V. Woolf actually uses ...
balteo's user avatar
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4 votes
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What are the "Globe" and "Park" in "Phyllis and Rosamond" by Virginia Woolf?

I'm reading Virginia Woolf's short story "Phyllis and Rosamond" and, well, here's the opening passage: In this very curious age, when we are beginning to require pictures of people, their ...
Kevin's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
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What did Virginia Woolf mean by "walked on the past the flower–bed" in Kew Gardens?

From Virginia Woolf's short story "Kew Gardens": They walked on the past the flower-bed, now walking four abreast, and soon diminished in size among the trees and looked half transparent as ...
aformentia's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
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What links Lily Briscoe's desire in To The Lighthouse to the desire of the old man in Slave Old Man?

The two books being compared are To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf and Slave Old Man (or The Old Slave and the Mastiff) by Patrick Chamoiseau. I have to write a thesis but am having a hard time ...
Harikrishna Jani's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
404 views

What was Septimus Warren Smith's rank?

It has been years since I read Mrs. Dalloway, and I don't remember if Septimus Warren Smith's rank was ever indicated. I'm vaguely left with the impression he was an officer. Was his rank ever ...
Bob516's user avatar
  • 153
4 votes
0 answers
251 views

Virginia Woolf's stance on literary canon

What was Virginia Woolf's take on literary canon? How does her book A Room of One's Own argue or imply that literary canon should be changed?
Abby Fallon's user avatar
10 votes
1 answer
594 views

What was the public's initial reaction to Virginia Woolf's Orlando?

Orlando is about an immortal man who changes into a woman. Originally Woolf wanted to write about a bisexual character but the laws of the time wouldn't allow it, so this was her way of compromising ...
TheWolfEmperor's user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
968 views

Did Virginia Woolf read The Yellow Wallpaper before publishing Mrs. Dalloway?

In a recent discussion in an online literature course, someone thought that the young woman in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper and the character Septimus Warren Smith in Virginia Woolf'...
Tsundoku's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
725 views

Why did Virginia Woolf judge 'Success prompts to exertion; habit facilitates success' a 'man's sentence'?

From A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf: ‘Success prompts to exertion; habit facilitates success.’ That is a man's sentence; behind it one can see Johnson, Gibbon and the rest. It was a sentence ...
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6 votes
1 answer
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Why does Susan say her "eyes are hard" when suffering an emotional breakdown in the Waves (Virginia Woolf)?

"I love," said Susan, "and I hate. I desire one thing only. My eyes are hard. Jinny's eyes break into a thousand lights. Rhoda's are like those pale flowers to which moths come in the evening. [...
virginia123's user avatar