An experimental novel that is a portrait both of a young man and of Edwardian society before the war
With introductions by Lawrence Norfolk and Elisabeth Bronfen
Jacob's Room is Virgina Woolf's first truly experimental novel. The life of a young man, Jacob, is traced from childhood, through Cambridge University to his early adult life in artistic London. Jacob consistently yearns for something greater and, in an attempt to resuscitate his love of the classics, he embarks on a voyage to the Mediterranean before the war begins and his fate is forever altered.
Author ProfileVirginia Woolf was born in London in 1882, the daughter of Sir Leslie Stephen, first editor of The Dictionary of National Biography. From 1915, when she published her first novel, The Voyage Out, Virginia Woolf maintained an astonishing output of fiction, literary criticism, essays and biography. In 1912 she married Leonard Woolf, and in 1917 they founded The Hogarth Press. Virginia Woolf suffered a series of mental breakdowns throughout her life, and on 28 March 1941 she committed suicide.
ReviewsVirginia Woolf stands as the chief figure of modernism in England and must be included with Joyce and Proust in the realisation of experimental achievements that have completely broken with tradition,With complete assurance Woolf throws out the age-old narratives of rulers, heroes and war,How is it possible even to suggest the special qualities that make up the startling brilliance of Virginia Woolf's style? Its suppleness must come from the perfection of her ear, which never lets anything pass that has no music for the reader's own; but perhaps the feature of her 'winged phrases' that delights and surprises most is her fertile use of simile and metaphor.
