Oliver Twist

The Waves (1931) is one of Virginia Woolf’s most experimental and poetic novels. It follows the lives of six characters—Bernard, Susan, Rhoda, Neville, Jinny, and Louis—from childhood to old age. The narrative is told entirely through their interior monologues, offering a deep, lyrical exploration of identity, time, memory, and consciousness.

Their lives are deeply intertwined by friendship and the shared presence of Percival, a charismatic friend who dies young. Though Percival never speaks directly in the novel, his death becomes a turning point, highlighting the fragility of life and the characters’ different ways of coping with loss and meaning.

Between each section of inner monologue, there are poetic interludes describing the sea and the sky at different times of day—from dawn to night—mirroring the progression of life from birth to death.