"The Waves" by Virginia Woolf

“Virginia Woolf sits in the great pantheon of Western literature, standing alongside Proust and Joyce in a triad of great ground-breaking prose writers who opened up new pathways for the European novel over the first three decades of the twentieth century. One of the major and most militant of modernism’s leading figures, she was fully aware of the fact that a revolution in tone was the necessary consequence of a change in position and perspective.” – Aris Berlis

Virginia Woolf (born Adeline Virginia Stephen in London, in 1882) grew up in a cultured and urbane environment, but had a difficult and traumatic childhood. Given that she was self-taught, she came not to be influenced by the sterile academic nature of university life. From 1905 onwards, she played a leading role in the creation of the now legendary Bloomsbury Group, a circle of writers, painters, and critics who had a profound influence on the London cultural scene for two decades. In 1912, she married Leonard Woolf, a partner who stood by her side through trying times. She wrote eight novels, as well as short stories, critiques, and other essays. “The Waves”, published in 1931, is considered one of her masterpieces. Her prose oeuvre is characterized by the stream of consciousness technique, which documents thoughts and feelings as they flow, without any obvious logical connection. After a series of misadventures due to her deteriorating mental health, she committed suicide in 1941.