Virginia Woolf: The Short Stories

by Virginia Woolf

The Short Stories Of Virginia Woolf. The short story is often viewed as an inferior relation to the Novel. But it is an art in itself. To take a story and distil its essence into fewer pages while keeping character and plot rounded and driven is not an easy task. Many try and many fail. In this series we look at short stories from many of our most accomplished writers. Miniature masterpieces with a lot to say. In this volume we examine some of the short stories of Virginia Woolf. Adeline Virginia Woolf was born in 1882 and was to become a founder of modernist writing. Her background is filled with elements of tragedy that she somehow overcame to become a revered writer. Her mother died when she was 13, her half sister Stella two years later and with it her first of several nervous breakdowns. She began writing professionally at age 20 but her father's death two years later brought a complete mental collapse and she was briefly institutionalised. Three of her half brothers had sexually abused her so further darkness was added to her life. But out of this came great innovations in writing; she was a pioneer of "stream of consciousness". Whilst the dark periods continued to interrupt her emotional state her rate of work never ceased. Until on 28 March 1941, Woolf put on her overcoat, filled its pockets with stones, and walked into the River Ouse and drowned herself leaving behind a note which read in part "Dearest, I feel certain that I am going mad again. I feel we can't go through another of those terrible times. And I shan't recover this time. I begin to hear voices, and I can't concentrate. So I am doing what seems the best thing to do". Many of these stories are also available as an audiobook from our sister company Word Of Mouth.

The full volume can be purchased from iTunes, Amazon and other digital stores. They are read for you by Richard Mitchley and Ghizela Rowe. Index Of Stories; A Haunted House; A Society; An Unwritten Novel; Kew Gardens; The Mark On The Wall; Monday Or Tuesday; Blue & Green; The Man Who Loved His Kind; The Searchlight; Together and Apart; The Legacy; A Summing Up; Moments Of Being; The Shooting Party

Genres: Audiobook

Audiobook

Published January 14, 2013

About the author

(Adeline) Virginia Woolf was an English novelist and essayist regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century.

During the interwar period, Woolf was a significant figure in London literary society and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Her most famous works include the novels Mrs. Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), and Orlando (1928), and the book-length essay A Room of One's Own (1929) with its famous dictum, "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."

Reviews

[Howard]

4 Stars for The Short Stories (audiobook ) by Virginia Woolf read by Richard Mitchley and Ghizela Rowe.

I think this is my first time reading Virginia Woolf. Her style is really interesting. This is just a short story collection so it’s not the best example of her work. But it feels really like to me that she is trying to leave the old world behind and start expressing modern ideas in a new way. I guess this is what she is known for and even in this short collection of stories it comes across.

[Cliff M]

Available on Audible. Read extremely well by Richard Mitchell and Ghizela Rowe. Contains seven of the eight short stories contained in Virginia Woolf’s famous ‘Monday or Tuesday’ collection printed in 1921 by Virginia and Lionel Woolf’s Hogarth Press (the missing story is ‘The Mark on the Wall’). The stories contained in this collection are: Kew Gardens; The String Quartet; Blue and Green; A Haunted House; Monday or Tuesday; An Unwritten Novel; and, A Society. You can find the same stories in innumerable other books as Woolf’s work is now in the public domain.

The stories are sometimes experimental; sometimes complex; sometimes poignant; and, sometimes funny. They definitely bear re-reading / re-listening as you only get xx% of their content the first time. I listened to each of them multiple times and got something new each time I did so.

My two favourites were also the two longest: ‘An Unwritten Novel’ and ‘A Society’. In an Unwritten Novel, VW creates a backstory and near-future for someone with whom she has shared a train carriage and with whom she has but exchanged a few words. This speculation and character-creating is something that many of us have done and often comes from wishing the best for others in whom we have seen possible issues. In the satirical, ‘A Society’ a group of young woman vow to stop concentrating on producing children and start concentrating on finding out what men do, especially what they are doing to the world. The way it ends is their answer and our answer. It contains some slightly risque humour, which took me by surprise. ‘A Society’ is definitely the funniest tale.

Definitely recommended, especially if treated the same as a collection of poetry that you will continue to explore in future.

[Georgia]

"We have gone on all these years assuming men were equally industrious [as their mother and grandmothers who have had ten or more children], and that their works were of equal merit. While we have borne the children, they, we supposed, have borne the books and the pictures. We have populated the world. They has civilised it. But now we can read, what prevents us from judging the results?"

3 stars for a mixed collection of 5 star stories, 2-3 star stories, and some that were so short I wouldn't be able to rate. Loved Woolf's writing as usual, and as pleasantly surprised by her ever-relevant commentary as ever.

[Aubrey Nekvinda]

Good intro, interesting to listen to her short stories in an audiobook format. Listened while I worked and it kept me pretty entertained!

[sarah mcGonagle]

good (duh)

[spooky Σοφί]

I feel the main themes in the stories were far more clear than in her full novels.
1st one: It shows how sweet love can be using nature as a metaphor (the writing in this one was delightful)
2nd one: The same as the first one but using music which was so unique.
3rd one: I enjoy this FAR MORE than I did the first time, it was a very nostalgic one because the description for green remind me of Orlando and made me wonder how the short stories interwoven with her full novels.
4th one: I was kind of confused at first yet the faact that it ended where the girl found her peace was BRILLIANT. And it was just a story about how love doesen´t show the way we think.
5th one: It dealt with really feminist topics and the education women used to have yet I didn´t felt it extremist and overall it was just a fun story about literature, trusting in ourselves and the fact that we aren´t what we create (both for women and for men).

I highly recommend the audiobook,it was so peaceful and it matched perfectly Virginia Woolf style.

[Maria Barbosa]

Contos muito bons, de uma grande escritora. Gostei muito das narrações também, estou cada vez mais viciada em audiobooks. O conto do qual eu mais gostei foi "A Society", muito bom, pois discute assuntos que eram muito caros à autora, e que são profundamente discutidos e talvez explicados em "A Room of One's Own", outro livro dela que eu amo.

[Lana]

All these stories are thoroughly Woolfian, but the star of this collection is the satire; A Society. This particular gem holds information that is still relevant today in the emancipation of women, and is a very beautiful analysis of 'society.'

[Mckinley]

Vary in length. Interesting assortment.

[Jamie]

A bit of a disparate collection, but some these stand out and pretty interesting

[Jameila]

4.5

[Alexandre Camilo Perez]

legacy - 5