Kew Gardens y otros relatos

by Virginia Woolf, Mario Dominguez Parra (Translator)

Los relatos de este volumen contienen ejemplos de lo que Virginia Woolf llamaba ''momentos de existencia'', en los que un personaje es plenamente consciente. En Kew Gardens, ambientada en el famoso jardín botánico de Londres, parece traducir verbalmente un cuadro impresionista. El movimiento de un caracol entre las flores, la forma y color de un pétalo, o las conversaciones fragmentarias de distintos paseantes, se funden en una estructura de cajas chinas que se proyecta desde el detalle minúsculo hasta los ''murmullos''; de la gran ciudad que los contiene todos.

Genres: Short Stories, Classics, Fiction, 20th Century, English Literature, British Literature, Ebooks

64 pages, Paperback

First published December 9, 2009

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

[Montse Gallardo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mi primera experiencia con Virginia Woolf , autora que siempre me ha dado mucho respeto. Y está bien haberme estrenado con 3 cuentos muy breves (en esta bellísima edición de Nórdica), porque no sé si una novela -para empezar- con un estilo tan "intenso" me habría motivado a seguir leyendo.

Me ha sorprendido gratamente y me ha gustado mucho el lirismo de las imágenes que evoca la escritora en estos cuentos; cómo -a pesar de la brevedad- puede generar reflexiones profundas sobre el paso del tiempo (creo que es el nexo común a los 3 cuentos, cada uno con su personalidad muy definida y diferente); y la riqueza del lenguaje, lleno de adjetivos... de l9s que no me sobra ninguno

No sé si me atreveré a leer alguna novela suya (tengo Al faro rondando por casa desde hace mucho tiempo), pero seguro que sigo leyendo sus cuentos

[SilveryTongue · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,5

Virginia Woolf y sus momentos de existenciales... Kew Gardens, Una casa encantada y La marca en la pared; Cada historia es perfecta en si misma, hecha de retazos, sensaciones y plagados de lirismo. Son situaciones de la vida diaria, de nuestra efímera existencia. Fueron escritos hace más de setenta años y sus historias no pierden vigencia.

Virginia escribió para su presente y cara al futuro.

Absolutamente atmosféricos!

"Estaban en la flor de la vida o más bien en ese momento que la precede, antes de que los suaves pliegues rosados de la flor abran su viscoso capullo, o cuando las alas de la mariposa, aunque plenamente desarrolladas, descansan inmóviles al sol" Kew Gardens

"Cuando nos miramos cara s cara en los autobuses y los vagones del metro, miramos el espejo que refleja la mirada ausente y vidriosa de nuestros ojos" La marca en la pared.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Een Oxford World Classic editie met een uitgebreid voorwoord en gedetailleerde annotaties bij de mooie selectie korte fictie die Virginie Woolf schreef tussen 1910 en 1920. Short fiction, want kortverhalen zijn het meestal niet. Eerder voldragen en geslaagde experimenten uit het talig-zintuiglijke laboratorium in Woolfs hoofd.

'Kew Gardens' staat prominent in de titel en dat is uiteraard terecht. In deze tekst combineert ze wat mij betreft alle modernistische trucs die ze zich tijdens die jaren eigen maakte om in haar latere werk verder uit te diepen: het inzoomende oog voor details, de fluctuerende perspectieven, het verbale inzicht in de menselijke verhoudingen en dat golvende tijdsbewustzijn dat zowel het hier en nu als de eeuwigheid lijkt aan te raken.

'Solid Objects' kan je als enige uitzondering wél als kortverhaal beschouwen, al overspant het uiteindelijk bijna een heel leven. Het begint eenvoudig filmisch, zoomt in op twee personages en gaat vervolgens bijna ongemerkt intrigeren. Het is een prachtig staaltje van hoe Virginia Woolf voorwerpen weet te bezielen.

Verder zijn er enkele teksten die vooruitwijzen naar A Room of One's Own, zoals 'A Society' en 'A Woman's College from the Outside'. Meteen raak en kritisch, maar op zo'n heerlijk luchtig spottend toontje zoals alleen Woolf dat kan. 'The New Dress' leest dan weer als een 'deleted scene' uit Mrs. Dalloway.

De bloedmooie laatste tekst, 'The Lady in the Looking-Glass: a Reflection', herinnerde me aan mijn favoriete Woolf-hoofdstuk uit To the Lighthouse: 'Time passes'. Het nodigt, net als haar romans, uit om opnieuw en opnieuw gelezen te worden, want de hoge literaire densiteit van Virginia Woolfs oeuvre kan een mens een leven lang doen terugkeren, op zoek naar hidden gems, nieuwe lichtinvallen en beloonde leesinspanningen.

[angeloreads★ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5⭐
NECESITO LEER MAS DE VIRGINIA WOOLF !

"𝐶𝑜𝑛 𝑞𝑢𝑒́ 𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑑𝑎𝑑 𝑛𝑢𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑜𝑠 𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑎𝑚𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑜𝑠 𝑠𝑒 𝑎𝑟𝑟𝑜𝑗𝑎𝑛 𝑠𝑜𝑏𝑟𝑒 𝑢𝑛 𝑛𝑢𝑒𝑣𝑜 𝑜𝑏𝑗𝑒𝑡𝑜 𝑦 𝑙𝑜 𝑙𝑒𝑣𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑛 𝑢𝑛 𝑝𝑜𝑐𝑜, 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑜 ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑖𝑔𝑎𝑠 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑒́𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑠 𝑞𝑢𝑒 𝑎𝑙𝑧𝑎𝑛 𝑢𝑛𝑎 𝑏𝑟𝑖𝑧𝑛𝑎 𝑑𝑒 ℎ𝑖𝑒𝑟𝑏𝑎, 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑎 𝑙𝑢𝑒𝑔𝑜 𝑎𝑏𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑟𝑙𝑜…"

[Silvia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Este libro está compuesto por tres relatos: Kew Gardens, Una casa encantada y La marca en la pared.

Son tres relatos muy breves con los que podemos degustar, durante el rato que nos duren entre las manos, el estilo de Virginia Woolf.
El cuento que más me ha gustado con diferencia ha sido 'Kew gardens', con él vamos a dar un paseo entre los jardines, a la sombra de los árboles, observando fugazmente a los personajes que vienen y van, es un relato muy evocador que me transmitió mucho sosiego, ideal para una tarde estival. Creo que lo voy a leer en más de una ocasión, es un gustazo leer a Virginia.

Con los otros dos cuentos no conecté tanto, son tan breves, sobre todo el de La casa encantada, que te dejan con ganas de más. Tal vez tendría que volver a releerlos, sobre todo La marca en la pared que a pesar de ser un relato muy corto me pareció algo exigente con el lector, algunas veces me pasa con la autora, si no estoy plenamente concentrada me cuesta asimilar todo lo que cuenta.

Un plus de este librito tan corto es la edición de Nórdica, es muy bonita y está acompañada de unas ilustraciones que para mí son puro arte, me parece que se ajusta perfectamente al tono de los relatos, es una edición preciosa.

Aún me quedan muchas novelas pendientes de Virginia, creo que voy a seguir aproximándome a ella a través de sus cuentos antes de seguir leyendo el resto de su obra.

[Petra · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

[🦇Iliana🥀 Mi biblioteca espectral · Rating 4 out of 5]

«—Aquí —murmura ella—, cuando dormíamos, cuando leíamos en el jardín, cuando reíamos, cuando llevábamos las manzanas al desván. Aquí dejamos nuestro tesoro.»

Amé la prosa de Virgina, es mi primer contacto con ella y seguramente no será el último.

En este libro, tenemos tres relatos acompañados de unas hermosas ilustraciones.
En el primero es la descripción de un jardín y de las conversaciones que se dan entre los paseantes, con unas hermosas vibes cottagecore.
El segundo es acerca de una casa encantada, donde para nada está presente el terror, sino más bien lo rodea una ambientación romántica.
El último es un monólogo casi existencialista de la narradora, observando una mancha en la pared.

Se lee de una sentada y lo más delicioso es la prosa de la autora, poética y sublime.

[natura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tres piezas muy cortas que más que cuentos son ensayos donde V. Woolf desarrolla brevemente algunas de sus obsesiones: lo efímero de la vida, qué es real y qué no, la importancia de lo que los demás piensan de cada uno, la utilidad de las normas y convenciones sociales... Todo rodeado de naturaleza en estado puro y con un toque "fantasmal" en el segundo cuento. Un gusto leer cualquier cosa de esta mujer, y al ser tan corto te quedas con ganas de más.

[Víctor Heranz · Rating 5 out of 5]

3 cuentos sobre fantasmas maravillosos.

[Francisco · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tres breves relatos, bellamente ilustrados, que parecen establecer un continuo narrativo, pero cuya brevedad es su principal obstáculo, ya que la idea queda apenas esbozada.

[Talon Shuffler · Rating 4 out of 5]

guys I read this for my Virginia Woolf class I’m taking this term and it was such a good intro to start with that exemplifies her writing style without being too hard to comprehend because it’s a short story collection. I really enjoyed a lot of the stories in here and could see Woolf becoming a favorite author of mine if the rest of her work is either this good or better and I can keep this streak alive

[Ivonne Bnitz · Rating 4 out of 5]

El componente descriptivo del paisaje y los escenarios hacen que las palabras parezcan pinceladas de una acuarela.
El segundo relato me pareció elegantemente enigmático.

[Laur · Rating 4 out of 5]

intensa, existencial y maravillosa (como siempre), mi virginia woolf. me parece muy buen comienzo para empezar si no te has leído nada suyo, porque es una escritora con un estilo muy particular y, en ocasiones, enrevesado. lectura de noviembre, de otoño tardío, de se mueren los árboles, de pena penita pena.

[Imation · Rating 4 out of 5]

El último, La marca en la pared, es para subrayar casi entero.

[Mona · Rating 4 out of 5]

my favourite one of the stories: "the society" and "The Lady in the looking glass: a Reflection" ✨️

[Rose♡ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wanted to read some of Virginia Woolf’s short stories before reading her larger volumes to get a feel for her writing. Very modernist and omniscient style. I really do like her stories and how mysterious and symbolic they are. Definitely will be reading more of her.

Kew Gardens: Very pretty and flowery. About life, love, and the tiny glimpses of people’s lives. Makes me think about how every single person is thinking about something different in the exact same moment.Every person’s narrative is unique. Makes me want to go to a botanical garden. Virginia Woolf talks about how the new modernist writing style (that she uses) is like a green insect and that the old more linear writing is like the snail. Beautiful writing. One of the quotes that I like: Doesn’t one always think of the past, in a garden with men and women lying under the trees? Aren’t they one’s past, all that remains of it, those men and women, those ghosts lying under the trees, one’s happiness, one’s reality?

The Mark on the Wall: One should be more like a tree. Many beautiful quotes. Talks about the war, what knowledge is, romanticization of one’s self, the passage of time, the reconstruction of the past, how life is too rapid, how technology has interrupted social connections, how habits change, hidden depths, and most importantly how modern civilization will eventually return to the natural world. But basically Virginia Woolf is telling us that if we are like trees, all of our problems will go away. “Suppose the looking-glass smashes, the image disappears, and the romantic figure with the green of forest depths all about it is there no longer, but only that shell of a person which is seen by other people - what an airless, shallow, bald, prominent world it becomes!”

The Mark on the Wall: One should be more like a tree. Many beautiful quotes. Talks about the war, what knowledge is, romanticization of one’s self, the passage of time, the reconstruction of the past, how life is too rapid, how technology has interrupted social connections, how habits change, hidden depths, and most importantly how modern civilization will eventually return to the natural world. But basically Virginia Woolf is telling us that if we are like trees, all of our problems will go away. “Suppose the looking-glass smashes, the image disappears, and the romantic figure with the green of forest depths all about it is there no longer, but only that shell of a person which is seen by other people - what an airless, shallow, bald, prominent world it becomes!”

Solid Objects: Don’t get too carried away with your fascinations and whims. Becoming too obsessed with “art” and the desire for non-conformity can become harmful. Learn to temper your passions. Bridge the arts with reality. The solid objects John collects are an escape from his political career but his obsession ruins his life, yet he doesn’t see that. Charles, his friend, is a realist. He knows what the objects truly are: just objects.

A Haunted Story: Virginia Woolf uses shifting tense and perspective; dreams and ghost stories. Re-imagining ghost stories and how to invoke fear in writing. We have all sensed something just on the edge of hearing or sight. But it is always when we are not paying attention. Is the narrator dreaming or awake? In the end, the ghost couple are searching for some type of treasure and eventually find it: “the light in the heart.” Love story? Joy?

Monday or Tuesday: Virginia Woolf is shifting from the normal fiction of physical details to a more psychological analysis reflecting the everyday sloppiness of life. She wanted to capture the fleeting impressions everyone experiences on an average day. Invoking disorientation. Is it monday or tuesday? Does it matter? It is also a representation what it is like inside the mind of a writer. Are we the heron observing everything? At the end the heron continues his quest for truth. At the end of the day we collect everything we witnessed and analyze it. Have we gotten closer to the truth? What is the truth? Or can we be content with just being close to the truth? “truth? or now, content with closeness?”

Blue and Green: Green is about Virginia Woolf’s struggle to find a new literary mode. Post-impressionism? How can an artist turn color into meaningful symbols? How can one use the impressionistic mode? Blue is about a man catching the fish but from the perspective of something smaller than the fish in the beginning, looking at the snub-nosed monster (fish), and also from the fish’s perspective at the end having a near-death experience when going on land.

The String Quartet: About how music has the power to take us out of ourselves. Also questioning how much we ever escape our own social class and the world we inhabit. Music allows us to transcend our immediate surroundings and escape somewhere else.

A Society: A humorous short story about a group of women finding out if there are good men and good books. So they go out in the world and ask questions and hold meetings to report their findings. They go on for years but never answer their question. Years later they read their old conversations and come to the fact that they wished they never learned how to read so they didn’t have to find the truth in the world. In the end, the only thing you should believe in is yourself.

In the Orchard: Virginia Woolf is playing with three types of narration styles in the same scene written three times.: First: Omniscient “all knowing” (Her own style). Second: Modernist, how the character interprets and blends with their surroundings (Her maturing modernist style). Third: Not interested with people but with nature (Not her style). She uses the same quote at the beginning of the three stories but it slowly changes to more a more “I don’t know and who cares?” narration. Starting with “Miranda slept in the orchard” to “was she asleep in the orchard?”

A Woman’s College From Outside: Angela is going to college to be independent while all the other girls are to have fun and be housewifes. Angela is frustrated because her parents sent her to college to be independent, which she wants, but she doesn’t know if she can be that because women and men are not equal. At the end she looks at the tree of knowledge and wants to go down that path but is worried she might not be able to.

The New Dress: Mabel is at Mrs. Dalloway party and her insecurities cause her influence her thoughts and surroundings. She had a yellow dress on, signifying how confident she felt when she got it, but when she goes to the party, she feels self-conscious. She sees herself as a fly while everyone else are dragonflies and butterflies because of their class differences. But at the end, she wants to change her life and leaves the party.

Slater’s Pin has no Point: Fanny is succumbing to her homosexual thoughts about her piano teacher, Julia. Slater’s pin has no point: the man’s genitalia is useless to fanny. At the end, either she has a fantasy about Julia kissing her, or it really happens. The carnation represents her desires and frustrations.

The Lady in the Looking Glass: A Reflection: The looking glass is a symbol of self-realization. On the outside, Isabella is rich and self-made, but on the inside, alone and blank. Is this how Virginia Woolf felt? She rips the envelopes and hides her letters, which are actually blank, to conceal her identity and to keep up this facade. The looking glass allows one to view the secrets and regrets of one’s own life while also seeing the insecurities and disappointments one might hold themselves.

[Curt Barnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having been appropriately awed by Joyce's Ulysses and other signal works of Modernism, I've never been able to persist with Mrs. Dalloway or To the Lighthouse, but a short story read years ago (included here) stayed with me; so I thought I'd attempt more of her short fiction. A good decision. If she'd done nothing else, she would have rocked my world with these. I would claim she'd been influenced by cinema in her wandering, selectively focusing, zoom-lensing observations within her chosen environments, had cinema been so plausibly developed when she wrote. Where the inspiration came from, to invent not an unreliable narrator but an unreliable and variable camera, I have no idea; but it's brilliant, and it adds modernist uncertainty and self-consciousness to the narrative tradition. I'm sure it was part of narrative tradition before, but Woolf takes it to new extremes: viewing an interior, and view to an exterior, by visiting a hallway mirror, then through it viewing a figure from afar, making determinations (some initially mistaken), some poetic, before identifying the subject more conventionally but with infinite delicacy, making indeterminate what other writers would pronounce with omniscient finality. All that emerges within the fabric of her writing organically—you watch while the images form, dissolve, shift, while the images shatter into mere words and then reassemble themselves. I want to say, what a giant, that I, in my 81st year, who has been so stretched and rewarded by Modernism and Postmodernism, have taken all this time to experience. Privileged ladies snipping flowers in their gardens? Of what trivial matter are the subjects, considering the breathtaking innovations of this huge talent? Onward.

[Obrir un llibre · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,50
Tres son los hermosos relatos que componen Kew Gardens y otros cuentos de Virginia Woolf. Breves —de hecho muy breves ya que el libro dispone de 80 páginas con un tamaño de letra considerable y se ha de tener en cuenta las preciosas ilustraciones de Elena Ferrándiz—, pero de gran belleza, y todos muy distintos entre sí. Tres cuentos que demostrarán la cualidad de la escritora en dotar de diversos matices a sus obras.

En el primero... http://www.abrirunlibro.com/2016/08/k...

[El baúl de las certezas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Para ser mi primera aproximación a la autora no puedo negar que me ha gustado, aunque es cierto que debido a la brevedad de los relatos no he conseguido acabar de conectar con los mismo por lo que quedo con ganas de leer algo más suyo

[Ignotus K. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tres cuentos súper cortos y que fluyen por la maestría de la narración de Virginia Woolf. Si bien es la primera vez que la leo y me encantó su forma de escribir, no tengo más que agregar. No dejó una gran impresión. Espero que esto cambie cuando lea otra obra de la autora.

[Barbara Rosas · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Cristina Munster · Rating 3 out of 5]

Me gustó la narración de los relatos, transmiten cierta calma y se puede visualizar la belleza de cada entorno descrito.
Siento que las historias terminaron muy rápido o quedaron abiertas.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75

Este libro contiene 3 cuentos de Virginia Woolf. A pesar de su brevedad demuestra la maestría de la autora inglesa en los detalles.

[Lorin (paperbackbish) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tell me the last book vou desperately wanted to DNF but didn't 😬

l'Il go first because it's this one. I finished this little book of short fiction stories by Virginia Woolf earlier this week, but it was a STRUGGLE, y'all. "Kew Gardens" was indeed one of the better ones, though my favorite was the satirical "A Society" in which women investigate gender roles and how they contribute to society.

Most of the stories, though, were straight-up rambling streams of consciousness. It was difficult for me to find the thread of the narrative, if in fact one even existed. I'm sure it did, because Woolf is a respected writer. Right? | remember disliking Mrs. Dalloway in college, so I think this will close out any further relationship I may have had with Virginia Woolf.

To each their own! 🐌

[Amélie · Rating 5 out of 5]

“It was her profounder being that one wanted to catch and turn to words, the state that is to the mind what breathing is to the body, what one calls happiness or unhappiness.”

“People should not leave looking-glasses in their room any more than they should leave open cheque books or letters confessing some hideous crime.”

“Under the stress of thinking about Isabella, her room became shadowy and symbolic; the corners seemed darker, the legs of the chairs more spindly and hieroglyphic.”

“…so black and metallic, that it was evidently alien to the earth and had its origin in one if the dead stars or was itself the cinder of a moon.”

[Zoé☀️ · Rating 3 out of 5]

It definitely feels strange to encounter shorter fiction by Woolf, whose novels have taken the spotlight completely. While the novel suits her style best in my opinion, some of these were still brilliant. It was kind of hit or miss! I particularly loved A Woman’s College from Outside and The Lady in the Looking Glass, which I found extremely beautiful and truly take Woolf’s prose to the realm of poetry.

[Gessamí · Rating 4 out of 5]

It feels astonishingly modern for its time. Her impressionistic style creates a vivid sense of presence, especially in Kew Gardens, which transported me to London on a summer afternoon, like a verbal painting. I was also struck by how quietly feminist the collection is, particularly in stories such as A Society, which challenge intellectual and social norms. Experimental and immersive; a joy to read 💜

[Michele · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a huge fan of Virginia Woolf but I think this collection of her stories is a mixed bag. Some I'd read before and it was good to revisit them, some I can see why they are less well known. You can see a definite progress in writing style and cohesion and there is an elegant wit in some which is easy to forget about Ms Woolf's writing as it is perhaps less visible in her novels.

[Maria Paula · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of her short stories are too fragmented and obscure for me leaving me like ._. “Whaaaat”
But if you want to read experimental literature and just immerse yourself in a whole new environment in the art that is the short story I recommend. It was nice/fun. Just not for me. I will be trying out her novels though

[JoshR · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Mark on the Wall - 4⭐️
Kew Gardens - 4⭐️
An Unwritten Novel - 3⭐️
Solid Objects - 3⭐️
A Haunted House - 5⭐️
Monday or Tuesday - 4⭐️
Blue & Green - 5⭐️
The String Quartet - 2⭐️
A Society - 5⭐️
In the Orchard - 2⭐️
A Woman’s College from Outside - 1⭐️
The New Dress - 3⭐️
‘Slater’s Pins Have No Points’ - 3⭐️
The Lady in the Looking-Glass: A Reflection - 3⭐️