Introduction & Notes by Deborah Parsons University of Birmingham 'I am writing to a rhythm & not to a plot' Virginia Woolf stated of her eighth novel The Waves Widely regarded as one of her greatest & most original works it conveys the rhythms of life in synchrony with the cycle of nature & the passage of time Six children
- Bernard Susan Rhoda Neville Jinny & Louis
- meet in a garden close to the sea their voices sounding over the constant echo of the waves that roll back & forth from the shore The subsequent continuity of these six main characters as they develop from childhood to maturity & follow different passions & ambitions is interspersed with interludes from the timeless & unifying chorus of nature In pure stream-of-consciousness style Woolf presents a cross-section of multiple yet parallel lives each marked by the disintegrating force of a mutual tragedy The Waves is her searching exploration of individual & collective identity & the observations & emotions of life from the simplicity & surging optimism of youth to the vacancy & despair of middle-age