Devon Book Club discussion

Join us for Woolf Week, beginning on 22nd October.

You may remember that, a few weeks ago, we voted on which book by Virginia Woolf to read and narrowly chose Between the Acts - her last work.

The Plot:
The story takes place in a country house somewhere in England, just before the Second World War. The book describes a pageant staged in the grounds of the house. It evokes and encompasses, as Woolf herself hoped it would, “all life, all art, all waifs, all strays”. Its ambition and execution – complete with moments of fragmentation, passages of prose poetry and darting movements from one character’s consciousness to another – are strikingly original, daring and yet assured.

It is a play within a play and is all the more poignant as, during the final revisions, Woolf drowned in the River Ouse

Reviews:
The book has been widely acclaimed - as beautifully crafted, a work of premonition and a valediction - but also a lyrically accessibly written.

Woolf is better known for her other works, in particular Mrs. Dalloway and To The LIghthouse, and I'm looking forward to hearing your views on Virginia Woolf's life and works.

How to join in:
I will open a thread on 22/10 for you to leave your comments here on Goodreads, but also on Facebook and Twitter.

We will focus on Woolf during that week and will substantially devote #devonbookhour over on Twitter on 22/10 to discussing her work and will extend that from 8.00 - to 9.30 to give more time.

I hope you will join in and enjoy the shared experience. Assuming this goes well we will choose other authors for future events

As you know, from 22-29 October Devon Book Club is hosting a Woolf Week, sharing thoughts on the life and work of Virginia Woolf. Rather than write further about it, I've made this short film. I hope you like it.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC39S...

The link will take you to our YouTube Channel, where you can watch the video, subscribe to get updates on new videos as they appear and leave me feedback.

I'd love to hear your thoughts - this is very new to me and I am learning as I go

I've just started reading Between the Acts today so am excited to get through it this week. I've got the white-spine Penguin Modern Classics edition and have chosen to skip the introduction until I've after I've read it so that I can make my own mind up before interrogating it further through someone else's perspective, but definitely looking forward to all forms and shapes of discussion that'll come from this across the DBC platform!
...I may need to make note of which character is which however, haha.

Matthew wrote: "I've just started reading Between the Acts today so am excited to get through it this week. I've got the white-spine Penguin Modern Classics edition and have chosen to skip the introduction until I..."

Its a quick read Matt - I started it last evening and already half way through - shall have time to read a couple of others too I hope.

Really looking forward to hearing people's views

Matthew wrote: "and have chosen to skip the introduction ..."


I am such a bad reader - I always skip the intro!


I want to try to join you all on this - I did read A Room of One's Own last year, but found it incredibly dry and didn't enjoy it one bit - I do think that was the point of that particular piece though, so I hope that reading something else will open my eyes to her writing.

Tonia wrote: "Matthew wrote: "and have chosen to skip the introduction ..."


I am such a bad reader - I always skip the intro!


I want to try to join you all on this - I did read [book:A Room of One's Own|185..."

Excellent - be great to hear the critique of A Room of Ones Own as well as your view Between The Acts and anything else by her. I finished BTA and am on to The Lighthouse next

"It was windy, so that the leaves now and then brushed open a star, and the stars themselves seemed to be shaking and darting light and trying to flash out between the edges of leaves"
From To The Lighthouse" by Virginia Woolf.
For me, her writing enlarges the moment
#woolfweek

An interesting conversation over on Twitter this evening. Between The Acts wasn't universally liked (bit of controversy there) but Orlando, Mrs. Dalloway and To The Lighthouse were generally well received. The discussion also revealed the connection with Vita Sackville West and a recommendation of her memoire Portrait of a Marriage.

Some interesting insights into Virginia's character and approach to life- feminism, modernism (as a writer) and a force to be reckoned with. A founder of the Bloomsbury Group and of Hogarth Press (with her husband, Leonard), she was clearly very impressive.

But she also struggled with her mental health ( she was bipolar but before medication was advanced enough to help to manage the condition) and, sadly committed suicide aged 59.

"Woolf established herself as an intellectual, an innovative and influential writer and pioneering feminist. Her ability to balance dream-like scenes with deeply tense plot lines earned her incredible respect from peers and the public alike." Do you agree? #woolfweek Day 2

"With the sunset sharpness was lost, and like mist rising, quiet rose, quiet spread, the wind settled; loosely, the world shook itself down to sleep, darkly here without a light to it, save what green suffused through leaves, or pale on the white flowers by the window"

This beautiful passage comes from To The Lighthouse, which I am loving. Hadn't read it before our #woolfweek In fact, hadn't read much Woolf at all - but what a delightful revelation.

She was a radical and creative woman, a moderniser (socially and politically as well as in her writing) and feminist and has left a legacy of novels, essays and a great deal more.

Not everyone's cup of tea I guess but I am loving getting to know her

Teresa Driscoll's review of To the Lighthouse - I agree with her completely

"I am angry with myself for coming so late to this novel. I don't have the words to describe how much it means to me. With utter brilliance Virginia Woolf moves the camera from character to character, thought to thought, from image to image until you swim in the frustration of trying to grasp the moment - just as she intends. I cried unashamedly when we were led through the empty home. To smell the dust. To ache with their loss...Genius!"

Day 4 of our #WoolfWeek. I've not quite finished To The Lighthouse so today's quote comes from there "In the midst of chaos there was shape; this eternal passing and flowing (she looked at the clouds going and the leaves shaking) was struck into stability"

Does that speak to you as it does to me?