Jacob's Room (Dover Thrift Editions)
Language: English
Pages: 144
ISBN: 048640109X
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Prized for their lyrical qualities, the novels of Virginia Woolf favor the psychological realms inhabited by her characters, where thoughts are so revealed that actions lose much of their importance. Most are also concerned with the structure of narrative, including the present novel, in which Woolf conveys the impression of time present and of time passing in individual experience as well as in the characters' awareness of historic time.
Considered Woolf's first original and distinguished work, Jacob's Room (1922) concerns a sensitive young man, Jacob Flanders, who finds himself unable to reconcile his love of classical culture with the chaotic reality of World War I. His story unfolds in a series of brief impressions and conversations, stream-of-consciousness narratives, internal monologues, and letters.
This inexpensive edition of Woolf's intense and affecting novel offers readers a first-rate example of subtle style and innovative techniques for which the author is admired.
turned away from the telescope. The young men laughed suddenly in the dining-room. ‘Let me look,’ said Charlotte eagerly. ‘The stars bore me,’ said Mrs Durrant, walking down the terrace with Julia Eliot. ‘I read a book once about the stars … What are they saying?’ She stopped in front of the dining-room window. ‘Timothy,’ she noted. The silent young man,’ said Miss Eliot. ‘Yes, Jacob Flanders,’ said Mrs Durrant. ‘Oh, mother! I didn’t recognize you!’ exclaimed Clara Durrant, coming from the
opposite direction with Elsbeth. ‘How delicious,’ she breathed, crushing a verbena leaf. Mrs Durrant turned and walked away by herself. ‘Clara!’ she called. Clara went to her. ‘How unlike they are!’ said Miss Eliot. Mr Wortley passed them, smoking a cigar. ‘Every day I live I find myself agreeing …’ he said as he passed them. ‘It’s so interesting to guess …’ murmured Julia Eliot. ‘When first we came out we could see the flowers in that bed,’ said Elsbeth. ‘We see very little now,’ said
with something quite off the point. Jacob sat himself down in the quarry where the Greeks had cut marble for the theatre. It is hot work walking up Greek hills at midday. The wild red cyclamen was out; he had seen the little tortoises hobbling from clump to clump; the air smelt strong and suddenly sweet, and the sun, striking on jagged splinters of marble, was very dazzling to the eyes. Composed, commanding, contemptuous, a little melancholy, and bored with an august kind of boredom, there he
the same, has been discussed since the very earliest times, is never settled, and is handed down to the next generation, a priceless part of their inheritance, since the hours spent tracing gravel paths are the best of all. Pacing gravel paths, yes; but soon the legs disappear; and the body; and the mind floats into the blue. What are we? Whence do we come? Those insoluble questions spread their background—and against it truth is questioned; reality; the apple tree; hyacinths appear momentous;
good bookshops. In case of difficulty, customers in the UK can order direct from Oxford University Press Bookshop, Freepost, 116 High Street, Oxford oxi 4BR, enclosing full payment. Please add 10 per cent of published price for postage and packing. 1 Virginia Woolf, ‘Modern Novels’ (first published in TLS, 10 Apr. 1919), in The Essays of Virginia Woolf, iii. 1919-24, ed. Andrew McNeillie (London: Hogarth Press, 1988), 33. 2 Winifred Holtby, Virginia Woolf (London: Wishart & Co., 1932); 117. 3