Virginia Woolf

<< Retour au forum

CLIQUEZ ICI POUR REPONDRE A CE SUJET

Message de virginia posté le 2004-05-12 20:46:23 (S | E | F | I)
Hi!
I would like to know if you've read some books by Virginia Woolf and if you've enjoyed your reading. I read 'Mrs Dalloway' and I enjoy it, even if I thought sometimes that the structure of the book was a little too complicated).
If you don't like reading, have you seen the movie "The Hours" ( from Michael Cunningham's book)? I think that N. Kidman plays Mrs Woolf perfectly well! ( Even if her life was a bit different in reality.)
That was the cultural point of the day! Take care! ;-)

Virginia.

Réponse: re de chrisg, postée le 2004-05-12 21:16:41 (S | E)
hello virginia, I unfortunately couldn't give you inputs aboput this book (cos' I've never read it), but actually How amazing is Nicole Kidman playing !!! It's one of the greatest US actress i have ever watched !!! (after M. Streep of course ... and vivian Leigh ... and .... ok stop)

Réponse: re de minneapolis_cafe, postée le 2004-06-22 21:44:19 (S | E)
Hello there!
I read Mrs Dalloway when I was at university. Not my favorite one, to be honest. I don't even remember the plot... She's married to a politician and is having a party? Am I right? I studied it five or six years ago, if I remember well. Time flies!!! I think I still have the book at home.
Have you tried Moon Palace by Paul Auster. This one's really great. There are stories within the main story. The main theme is a quest for identity. That's a very beautiful book to me.
Mao II by Don De Lillo is awesome too. It deals with the story of a writer, Bill Gray, who has to face terrorism. It was written years before the events of September, 11th.
Did you study Great Expectations in first year?

-------------------
Edité par minneapolis_cafe le 2004-06-22 21:50:42

Réponse: re de virginia, postée le 2004-06-23 10:36:36 (S | E)
Here is the summary of the book Mrs Dalloway. If you want more information about it you may go on www.sparknotes.com. It's much more detailed. I didn't read 'Moon Palace' but I've heard of it. I read 'Great Expectation' on the 1st semester of this year. I didn't really like it... I love when the end is very explicit. When we know that it's dramatic or when it's an happy end. I read "The Woman in White" last year and I liked it. I found it was a little long at the beginning but then I was so much interested by the story that I couldn't stop reading!
See you!

'Mrs. Dalloway portrays the events of one June day in 1920s London. Clarissa Dalloway, the title character, prepares for a party that she will host later that evening. As she prepares, she thinks about her past, most specifically about Peter Walsh, a love of hers that she spurned many years ago in marrying her husband, Richard Dalloway. In a seemingly unrelated narrative, Septimus Warren Smith, a veteran of World War I suffering from delayed shell shock, runs parallel to Clarissa's story. Septimus walks down the street with his Italian wife, Lucrezia. He is worried that the world holds no meaning. He hears voices and speaks aloud with his friend Evans, who died during the war.
Peter Walsh unexpectedly drops by Clarissa's house as she mends her dress. The two have a conversation that is at once both easy in its banter and horribly labored. As they talk about things in the present, each thinks separately about the other and their intertwined past. Elizabeth, Clarissa's daughter, arrives, and Peter takes his leave and goes to a park. Peter thinks about the past, and the events leading up to Clarissa's decision to marry Richard Dalloway rather than him. He also thinks about how Clarissa's rejection of him led him to go to India and enter into his first, unsuccessful marriage.

Meanwhile, Septimus and Lucrezia wander through the park. As they walk, Septimus reasonably argues the benefits of suicide. Lucrezia has made an appointment to bring Septimus to see Sir William Bradshaw, a famous doctor. Peter sees them arguing and imagines they are having a lover's quarrel. Septimus remembers his past. He was a sensitive man who wanted to be a poet and loved Shakespeare. When the war broke out, he quickly enlisted for romantic patriotic reasons. He befriended Evans; when this friend died, Septimus believed himself a proper soldier because he felt little sadness. Now, in the aftermath of the war, he believes his romantic notions were idiocy and his lack of feeling a great crime. Bradshaw treats Septimus in an offhand manner, calling his problems a lack of proportion, and states that Septimus should be sent to a rural area to be alone for a while.
Richard Dalloway returns home from a lunch with flowers for Clarissa. He intends to tell her he loves her, but because it has been so long since he last said it, he does not. They part, Clarissa thinking that no man can understand her. Clarissa then goes to see her daughter, who is studying with Miss Kilman, a history teacher. Clarissa and Miss Kilman are both jealous of each other, for all the wrong reasons. Meanwhile, Septimus and Lucrezia are in their apartment, waiting for the men who will bring Septimus to his retreat. Septimus does not want to go. The men arrive, and rather than go with them Septimus jumps from the window to his death.
Peter hears the ambulance carrying Septimus go by. He marvels at the "triumph of civilization." He decides to go to Clarissa's party. Every major character other than Septimus and Lucrezia are at the party. Clarissa worries that the party will not be a success, and then, when it is a success, feels somehow dissatisfied. Sir William Bradshaw arrives late, his wife explaining that one of his patients, a young veteran (Septimus), has committed suicide. Clarissa thinks about the veteran and his suicide, concluding that he killed himself because he realized men like Bradshaw made life intolerable. The party ends, and the guests leave. Clarissa approaches Richard, who feels a great excitement.
Clarissa and her husband Richard Dalloway made their first appearance as relatively minor characters in The Voyage Out. In this first literary incarnation, she and her husband are fairly shallow, conventional upper-class citizens. In Mrs. Dalloway, they are portrayed more complexly.
Clarissa spends the day preparing for the party she will host later that evening. The narrative of Septimus Warren Smith runs parallel to Clarissa's story. Septimus goes to the doctor, returns home, and jumps from his room, killing himself, when the doctors come to take him to an asylum. Clarissa's story reveals the consequences of her decision to marry a proper English gentleman thirty years earlier. Her friends Peter and Sally offer their reactions to her decision, which forced her to give up the lifestyle the three of them shared in their youth. Over the course of the novel, Clarissa's decision comes to take on the tone of a symbolic suicidal choice. The youthful Peter held controversial opinions; he desperately loved Clarissa and offered her the possibility of being something beyond a typical society wife. Young Richard Dalloway offered the security of a tried and true British upper-class existence. Clarissa chose Richard, and she then evolved into a shallow British aristocrat. She has become "Mrs. Richard Dalloway."
Richard is actually a thoughtful, kindhearted man. Reflecting on the millions of young men who died in the war, Richard realizes the miracle of his own life. He wants to tell his wife he loves her "in so many words." However, he finds himself unable to say the words, because they have gone so long unsaid.
When the major characters of the novel gather at Clarissa's party, Septimus makes his own posthumous appearance in Clarissa's astute analysis of the circumstances of his suicide.'

Réponse: re de minneapolis_cafe, postée le 2004-06-23 13:04:54 (S | E)
Hi Virginia,
don't know The Woman in White. Did you like it?
I ended Le Parfum by Patrick Süskind a few days ago. I read it in French (since my German is terrible!)
This book got itself talked about a lot. That's why I wanted to read it.
That's a bit strange, sometimes tough, but really interesting and very well written!
So long!
Minnea.

Réponse: re de chrisg, postée le 2004-06-23 13:14:03 (S | E)
I really loved this book "le Parfum", also read it in french, more than 10 years ago.

Réponse: re de virginia, postée le 2004-06-23 17:12:52 (S | E)
I haven't read the book you mention but I'll try to read it. I liked 'The Woman in White' by Wilkie Collins because it's a bit different from Shakespeare or Smolett! There's an interesting plot.
I also like 'Midnight's children' by Salman Rushdie. It's very interesting. He writes about his life from his birth day in 1947( On the day of the independence of India) till the moment he's writing his book. I enjoyed his style of writing.
See you!

CLIQUEZ ICI POUR REPONDRE A CE SUJET