Ahh! We usually have similar taste but I was going to binge on Woolf last year and started with to the lighthouse and I didn’t enjoy it ? so moved on to other authors. Ready to give her another shot ?
@Sean I’d like to read one (or more) of her early “realist” novels. Last year or the year before Cambridge UP put out a multi-volume (12, I think) collection of her father’s writing, but the four figure price tag deterred me from buying it!
@Sean When I was still an academic, I published some scholarship on American poet James Merrill. His first book was a “vanity publisher” thing that his father had secretly made as a surprise 16th birthday present for him. Pretty soon, Merrill was mortified by the book. Not many copies were made and Merrill destroyed as many of them as he could get his hands on for the rest of his life. All the copies I could ever find were FAR out of my price range, but I’d check once in a while to see if any copy I hadn’t known of came onto the market. And finally an additional one did. It was still out of my price range, but its appearance gave me an idea (I could easily have done this with any of the ones that had been up for sale before, but it just didn’t occur to me). I emailed the guy selling it and told him I was a Merrill scholar but could never afford the book and asked if he’d photocopy it for me. He gladly did so. And thus I got my hands on the “text” of a book that often nowadays costs in the low five figures!
@Sean Even better than that: maybe six weeks after an essay I’d written on Merrill came out, I got a card from Merrill, postmarked from Key West (where he spent part of the year for the last couple of decades of his life). Two handwritten paragraphs. The first paragraph was full of praise for my essay, etc. The second paragraph began “I have, however, a few very small nits to pick” and he went on to pick at a few, very small, nits. At Christmastime that year, he sent me a signed copy of a hardcover book of a single poem (it appeared in his next book) he’d had made to be able to give folks.
I love her work but she is not for everyone. Most of her novels/short stories I have read several times throughout my life. As she said about re-reading novels, “The book doesn’t change but the reader does.” Glad you are giving it another try.
I read To the Lighthouse a while back. She is a brilliant writer but I sometimes have a hard time understanding the meaning behind her writing.. Good for you!
I adore both Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse.
Ahh! We usually have similar taste but I was going to binge on Woolf last year and started with to the lighthouse and I didn’t enjoy it ? so moved on to other authors. Ready to give her another shot ?
@Sean I’d like to read one (or more) of her early “realist” novels. Last year or the year before Cambridge UP put out a multi-volume (12, I think) collection of her father’s writing, but the four figure price tag deterred me from buying it!
@Don yes, that would have put me off too ?
@Sean I did, however, spring for four figures for the 7 volume Cambridge Ben Jonson complete works six years ago!!!
@Don wow! Think the most I’ve paid for a book is about £2?
@Sean When I was still an academic, I published some scholarship on American poet James Merrill. His first book was a “vanity publisher” thing that his father had secretly made as a surprise 16th birthday present for him. Pretty soon, Merrill was mortified by the book. Not many copies were made and Merrill destroyed as many of them as he could get his hands on for the rest of his life. All the copies I could ever find were FAR out of my price range, but I’d check once in a while to see if any copy I hadn’t known of came onto the market. And finally an additional one did. It was still out of my price range, but its appearance gave me an idea (I could easily have done this with any of the ones that had been up for sale before, but it just didn’t occur to me). I emailed the guy selling it and told him I was a Merrill scholar but could never afford the book and asked if he’d photocopy it for me. He gladly did so. And thus I got my hands on the “text” of a book that often nowadays costs in the low five figures!
@Don that’s really cool, glad you got your copy.
@Sean Even better than that: maybe six weeks after an essay I’d written on Merrill came out, I got a card from Merrill, postmarked from Key West (where he spent part of the year for the last couple of decades of his life). Two handwritten paragraphs. The first paragraph was full of praise for my essay, etc. The second paragraph began “I have, however, a few very small nits to pick” and he went on to pick at a few, very small, nits. At Christmastime that year, he sent me a signed copy of a hardcover book of a single poem (it appeared in his next book) he’d had made to be able to give folks.
I love her work but she is not for everyone. Most of her novels/short stories I have read several times throughout my life. As she said about re-reading novels, “The book doesn’t change but the reader does.” Glad you are giving it another try.
I like that saying?
Maybe I read it when i was too young ( i was 16) and i didn’t understand the plot. I didn’t like it. I will give another try just like you did.
I read To the Lighthouse a while back. She is a brilliant writer but I sometimes have a hard time understanding the meaning behind her writing.. Good for you!
How’d you like her writing?
Didn’t like it ? I will try mrs dalloway next but think she might not be the right author for me?
As much as I tried I couldn’t like her either. I wanted to since she is an important female writer in literary history, but Lord no.
BUT I haven’t read Mrs. Dalloway either and I’ve heard that was the best. I may try it. One day. Lol.
@Rita I wanted to like her too , I’ve got a couple more on my tbr shelf so will give them a try.
@Rita when I get around to reading it , I will let you know how it is ?
We can struggle together from afar. Haha!