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Comment by seanhunter | Hacker News Reader

For people who are interested in Virginia Woolf as a novelist, I would strongly recommend "Mrs Dalloway" as a starting point. It's an incredible novel - startlingly modern and beautifully written.[1]

In terms of her essay writing, "A room of one's own"[2] is probably most famous/influential, although from a personal perspective I didn't find it as enjoyable to read as Mrs Dalloway. In general I prefer novels to essays so take that however you like.

[1] Btw my recommendation is don't read anything about it beforehand. Synopses/cliff notes/the wikipedia entry will probably ruin the experience for you. The book is about really getting inside the head of certain characters and understanding their thoughts and motivations. If that sounds interesting to you, then that's all you need to know to dive in.

[2] https://victorianpersistence.wordpress.com/wp-content/upload...

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Why Mrs. Dalloway rather than To the Lighthouse?

That is also of course a great novel but Mrs Dalloway was the thing that really made me realise how special she was as a writer, so that's what I would personally recommend. It may be that had such an impact on me because I read it before To the Lighthouse and if I read them in the opposite order perhaps I would feel differently.

I would agree with suggesting Dalloway before To The Lighthouse, because I think Dalloway is generally more concrete and attainable. To The Lighthouse takes Woolf's characteristic stream-of-consciousness interiority a step further and can also be very roundabout in its approach to the "thing" that a character is actually thinking about or trying to say. It's also a bit more experimental in its form, and can be overall a bit harder to "grasp". I think someone new to Woolf would benefit from having Dalloway as an opportunity not only to get used to her style of writing, which will help smooth the learning curve if you decide to read To The Lighthouse, but also to form a judgement of her in a more "typical" setting so that you can decide if she merits your working through her more experimental works. Cheers.

Or The Waves which is arguably the equal of Ulysses.

On the other side, for people who are interested in Virginia Woolf as a novelist and wanna get fucked up, check out "Orlando".

Yes indeed. It's quite a journey. I think I wasn't quite ready for it the first time so it's on my list to visit again soon.

I didn't realize the film was based on one of her works! Pretty neat

Followed by Jacqueline Harpman’s Orlanda

I am also a fan of lists, and I would say that as far as lists of "great books" go, an aggregated view would look like:

To the Lighthouse > Mrs. Dalloway > Orlando > A Room of One's Own = The Waves

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