The Waves

Virginia Woolf · 1882–1941 · England

Why it matters

Six lifelong friends speak in interlocking soliloquies from childhood to old age, with barely a line of ordinary narration between them. Woolf's most experimental novel pushes stream of consciousness further than Mrs Dalloway or To the Lighthouse ever dared.

At a glance

Six voices speak in unbroken poetic soliloquy with almost no plot or dialogue to anchor them.