I want to start reading works of Virginia Woolf. Where do I

The waves and stop there

>>9027792
I'd recommend To the Lighthouse. Then Mrs. Dalloway, and read in chronological order. I get that To the Lighthouse is the logical next step after Mrs. Dalloway, but it's also a very good introduction. You'll be fully familiarised with her style, and if you don't like it, you'll have read a very important book that reflects her abilities and work.

Avoid Jacob's Room though because it's absolute shit. Don't read it.

>>9027831
Thanks for your input.

>>9027792
Lighthouse>Dalloway>Waves
then Orlando if you want more

>>9027792
To the Lighthouse was my first Woolf and I found it a great introduction
10/10 book on its own too

>>9027792
>tfw no modernist suicidal gf

Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf, my dude

>>9027831
>Avoid Jacob's Room though because it's absolute shit. Don't read it.

I'm so glad you said that. I've read To the Lighthouse, Mrs Dalloway and The Waves and loved them all, then I read Jacob's Room - which out me off her work for a good while.

What else of her work is worth checking out?

>>9029765
Definitely Orlando

Read the Dalloway short story first, then do whatever.

Read every page from each of her novels in alphabetical order.

I started with The Waves

I would suggest not doing that

>>9027824
Came here to post this.

>>9027831
What's wrong with Jacob's Room?

To The Lighthouse is the most important. Hell, people apeing shit like that invented the 'literary genre'

>>9027792
Do i say "wolf" or "woolf"?

Are Woolf's books hard to read?

I've tried some modernism before and it was extremely difficult. Not a pleb btw.

>>9030228
It's To The Lighthouse is just a tad harder than Victorian stuff.
The Waves is around Ulysses level as far as actual reading, but it isn't as allusive.

>>9030226
Its pronounced Wulf

>>9030231

>The Waves is around Ulysses level as far as actual reading

lol? not even close.

>>9030257
as far as tell the actual plot, it was for me. but beam-of-consciousness has never really bothered me.
hell, BOTNS takes me longer, because i have to look up 3 words a page.

>>9030267
>BOTNS

What is this?

Thinking about reading to the lighthouse soon. How hard is it? I am somewhat new to /lit/.

>>9030277
Book of the New Sun. Not canon, but a good example of a book i've had difficulty actually reading.

>>9029765
>>9030201
The idea behind the book is pretty good, admirable even, but it's executed so poorly. It's awful, truly awful. It made me want to stop reading it only after 10 pages or so and it's about as close as a literary torture device as you can get. It's one of the worst things I've ever read. In Jacob's Room it seems as if Woolf can't write for shit and, believe it or not, as if she's a terrible observer of human life. In contrast to the rest of her work, Jacob's Room is completely static and her observations are bland. The only merit in this book is the idea, which can be explained to you in one short sentence.

Yeah, you could argue that that's the point of the book by defending her idea of the room and remoteness, but I don't think it's praiseworthy to choose to TELL about unsatisfying, uninteresting, and dull things with lack of precision and insight that doesn't even capture human life or anything interesting in any profound way. It doesn't even scratch the surface, it's just a bunch of meaningless shit and unjustified self-wankery. On top of that, the book is filled with bad writing. Genuinely bad writing. This is how she ends a chapter - and I didn't not even select this segment because it's any worse than the rest:

“Sunlight strikes in upon shaving-glasses; and gleaming brass cans; upon all the jolly trappings of the day; the bright, inquisitive, armoured, resplendent, summer’s day, which has long since vanquished chaos; which has dried the melancholy mediaeval mists; drained the swamp and stood glass and stone upon it; and equipped our brains and bodies with such an armoury of weapons that merely to see the flash and thrust of limbs engaged in the conduct of daily life is better than the old pageant of armies drawn out in battle array upon the plain.”

It's as if she doesn't know how to write, which is an unbelievable statement considering she wrote To the Lighthouse etc. Read 10 pages and I can guarantee you to feel hopelessly frustrated.

>>9030503
>>9030267
Just finished it. I had Lexicon Urthus on hand and it made the etymological journey part of the story. Shadow of the Torturer outshone the other volumes by far imo

>>9030500
Also interested in this. Some anon ITT said it's a tad harder than victorian stuff but how hard is it exactly?

>>9031192
>>9030500
It's not that hard to read. Just pay attention to whats between brackets and how that relates to what is being described or said. She really plays with time and space and simultaneity. Don't worry though.

Maybe it is to enjoy but I didn't have that problem so I wouldn't know.

To the Lighthouse is a good starter and showcase.