Quotes from bookThe Waves
The Waves is a 1931 novel by Virginia Woolf. It is considered by many to be her most experimental work, and consists of soliloquies spoken by the book's six characters: Bernard, Susan, Rhoda, Neville, Jinny, and Louis. Also important is Percival, the seventh character, though readers never hear him speak in his own voice. The soliloquies that span the characters' lives are broken up by nine brief third-person interludes detailing a coastal scene at varying stages in a day from sunrise to sunset.
Virginia Woolf book The Waves
Bernard, section IX
Source: The Waves (1931)
Context: Our friends, how seldom visited, how little known — it is true; and yet, when I meet an unknown person, and try to break off, here at this table, what I call “my life”, it is not one life that I look back upon; I am not one person; I am many people; I do not altogether know who I am — Jinny, Susan, Neville, Rhoda, or Louis; or how to distinguish my life from theirs.
“She was like a crinkled poppy; with the desire to drink dry dust.”
Virginia Woolf book The Waves
Source: The Waves
“But our hatred is almost indistinguishable from our love.”
Virginia Woolf book The Waves
Source: The Waves
“… But beauty must be broken daily to remain beautiful…”
Virginia Woolf book The Waves
Source: The Waves
“To let oneself be carried on passively is unthinkable.”
Virginia Woolf book The Waves
Source: The Waves
