Virginia Woolf

HarperCollins is proud to present its range of best-loved, essential classics. There was a star riding through clouds one night, and I said to the star, ‘Consume me’ Six friends traverse the uneven road of life together in Virginia Woolf’s most unconventional classic. Bernard, Jinny, Louis, Neville, Rhoda, and Susan first meet as children by the sea, and their lives...

One of the BBC's '100 Novels That Shaped Our World' HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics. Orlando had become a woman – there is no denying it. But in every other respect, Orlando remained precisely as he had been. The change of sex, though it altered their future, did nothing whatever to alter their...

A playful mock 'biography' of a chameleonic historical figure, written for Virginia Woolf's intimate friend Vita Sackville-West. Orlando has always been an outsider... His longing for passion, adventure and fulfilment takes him out of his own time. Chasing a dream through the centuries, he bounds from Elizabethan England and imperial Turkey to the modern world. Will he find happiness with...

HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics. Mrs Dalloway follows Clarissa Dalloway, a woman of high society—vivacious, hospitable, and sociable on the surface, yet beneath, troubled and dissatisfied with her life in post-war Britain. This disillusionment is an emotion that bubbles under the surface of all of Woolf’s characters in Mrs Dalloway. The story is...

The Waves, Woolf's innovative modernist novel, is now available in a new Black Classics edition. Tracing the lives of a group of friends, this novel follows their development from childhood to middle age. While social events, individual achievements, and disappointments form its narrative, the novel is most remarkable for the rich poetic language that expresses the inner life of its...

HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics. There was a star riding through clouds one night, and I said to the star, ‘Consume me’ Six friends traverse the uneven road of life together in Virginia Woolf’s most unconventional classic. Bernard, Jinny, Louis, Neville, Rhoda and Susan first meet as children by the sea, and their...

A savage indictment of British society at the turn of the century, from the author of Mrs. Dalloway. The Years is the story of three generations of the Pargiter family - their intimacies and estrangements, anxieties and triumphs - mapped out against the bustling rhythms of London's streets during the first decades of the twentieth century. A work of fluid...

To the Lighthouse is Woolf's most autobiographical novel, now in Penguin Black Classics. To the Lighthouse is at once a vivid impressionistic depiction of a family holiday, and a meditation on marriage, on parenthood and childhood, on grief, tyranny and bitterness. For years now, the Ramsays have spent every summer in their holiday home in Scotland, and they expect these...

HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics. ‘She had a perpetual sense, as she watched the taxi cabs, of being out, far out to sea and alone; she always had the feeling that it was very, very dangerous to live even one day.’ One hot summer’s day in 1923, Clarissa Dalloway sets out to buy...

Virginia Woolf's most unusual and fantastic creation, a funny, exuberant tale that examines the very nature of sexuality. With introductions by Peter Ackroyd and Margaret Reynolds. As his tale begins, Orlando is a passionate young nobleman whose days are spent in rowdy revelry, filled with the colourful delights of Queen Elizabeth's court. By the close, he will have transformed into...

HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics. Every summer, the Ramsays visit their summer home on the beautiful Isle of Skye, surrounded by the excitement and chatter of family and friends, mirroring Virginia Woolf’s own joyful holidays of her youth. But as time passes, and in its wake the First World War, the transience of...

Twenty new titles in the much-loved and hugely successful Penguin English Library series. Mrs Dalloway beautifully encapsulates the essence of life, echoing in its opening with the sentiment: 'She always had the feeling that it was very, very dangerous to live even one day'. On a June morning in 1923, Clarissa Dalloway is preparing for a party and remembering her...

46 new books in the bestselling Little Black Classics series, to celebrate the first ever Penguin Classic in 1946. Things are not simple but complex. If he bit Mr. Browning he bit her too. Hatred is not hatred; hatred is also love. Virginia Woolf's delightful biography of the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning's spaniel, which asks what it means to be...

A Room of One's Own grew out of a lecture that Virginia Woolf had been invited to give at Girton College, Cambridge in 1928. Ranging over Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë and why neither of them could have written War and Peace, over the silent fate of Shakespeare's gifted (and imaginary) sister, over the effects of poverty and chastity on...

Love Letters: Vita and Virginia delves into the passionate and intellectually stimulating exchange between two of the twentieth century's most prominent female writers, Vita Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf. This collection of letters and diary entries captures the evolution of their relationship, from the initial sparks of attraction to a deep, enduring friendship and literary partnership. At once radical, relatable, and...

Mrs. Dalloway begins with the simple yet significant line, "Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself." This marks the start of Virginia Woolf's much-beloved fourth novel. First published in 1925, Mrs. Dalloway is often regarded as Woolf's masterpiece, a pivotal work of literary modernism, and one of the most significant and influential novels of the twentieth century. In...

This Norton Critical Edition includes: The first edition (1928) text of Orlando: A Biography, with an introduction and explanatory annotations by Madelyn Detloff, accompanied by illustrations from earlier editions. Provocative reviews from Woolf's contemporaries and various written materials that place Orlando within a changing epoch. Seven critical essays on the novel's major themes: gender, sexuality, class, feminism, and performance. A...

Bold and experimental, Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway is a landmark in twentieth-century fiction and a book that gets better and better with every reading. On a perfect June morning, Clarissa Dalloway – fashionable, worldly, wealthy and an accomplished hostess – sets off to buy flowers for the party she will host that evening. She is preoccupied with thoughts of the...

Through a series of connected monologues, The Waves tells the story of six very different friends – Bernard, Louis, Neville, Jinny, Susan and Rhoda – as they progress from childhood to middle age. Interspersed with evocative descriptions of the seaside at different times of day, the poignant personal histories coalesce into a poetic tapestry of human experience. A commercial and...

Discover Virginia Woolf's landmark essay on women’s struggle for independence and creative opportunity. A Room of One's Own is one of Virginia Woolf's most influential works, widely recognised for its extraordinary contribution to the women's movement. Based on a lecture given at Girton College, Cambridge, it stands as one of the great feminist polemics. The essay explores themes from Jane...

Based on two talks given by the author and first published in September 1929, Virginia Woolf's seminal essay revolves around the central claim that a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction. Outlining the importance of education and financial independence, Woolf draws up a history of women writers and demonstrates how...

Orlando by Virginia Woolf is a pioneering novel about a time-traveling sixteenth-century nobleman who wakes up in the body of a woman. This edition includes a new foreword by Andrea Lawlor, author of Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl. "A brilliant book that teaches you so much about identity and love—all these fundamental questions that we ask ourselves."...

This special edition features the original cover created by Virginia Woolf's sister, Vanessa Bell, and the original text first published by The Hogarth Press. Celebrate a vital work of feminism with this special edition featuring the original cover created by Virginia Woolf's sister, Vanessa Bell, and the original text first published by The Hogarth Press. Anon, who wrote so many...

As Katherine Hilbery is helping her mother write the biography of her grandfather, a famous man of letters buried in Poets’ Corner, she becomes engaged to William Rodney, a budding writer with an exaggerated opinion of his own poetical talent. Meanwhile, the suffragette Mary Datchet is in love with Ralph Denham, a lawyer and journalist from a lowly background, who...

'He thought her beautiful, believed her impeccably wise; dreamed of her, wrote poems to her, which, ignoring the subject, she corrected in red ink.' Mrs Dalloway is a novel that features two main characters and two different worldviews. On the one hand, there is Clarissa Dalloway, who, being labelled as Mrs, symbolizes her marital and social confinement. On the other,...

LARGE PRINT EDITION. Mrs. Dalloway (1925) is a novel by Virginia Woolf. Adapted from two short stories, "Mrs. Dalloway in Bond Street" and "The Prime Minister," Mrs. Dalloway is a moving portrait of a day in the life of one woman, her thoughts and perceptions, and the influence of war on the human psyche. Recognized as one of Woolf's most...

From his childhood on the wild, windswept shores of Cornwall and his college days at Cambridge to his life as a lawyer in London and a fateful journey to the Mediterranean, Jacob Flanders’s story is told by the women in his life, whether through his mother’s correspondence, the conversations of a friend, or the thoughts and remembrances of those who...

It is a variable early summer’s day, and there is an unusual bustle in the grounds of Pointz Hall, a country house in a remote village in the very heart of England. The local community is all astir, intent on putting the finishing touches to preparations for the annual pageant, which is to be performed there that evening. Among the...

A very special hardback edition featuring the original artwork created by Virginia Woolf's sister, Vanessa Bell. Celebrate a captivating novel with this special edition featuring the original cover created by Virginia Woolf's sister, Vanessa Bell, and the original text first published by The Hogarth Press. There were little daily miracles, illuminations, matches struck unexpectedly in the dark. The Ramseys have...

A portrait of a family coping with changes wrought by the new twentieth century - the most popular of Woolf's books during her lifetime. Discover the most popular of Woolf's books during her lifetime - a powerful portrait of a family coping with changes wrought by the new twentieth century. The Years follows the lives of the Pargiters, a large...

A very special hardback edition of Mrs Dalloway to celebrate its 100th anniversary, featuring the original artwork created by Virginia Woolf's sister, Vanessa Bell. Celebrate the 100th birthday of a groundbreaking novel with this limited run special edition. Clarissa Dalloway is preparing to give a party. In this vivid portrait of one day in a woman's life, Clarissa is preoccupied...

Night and Day is new to Modern Classics. Katharine Hilbery is beautiful and privileged but uncertain of her future. She must choose between becoming engaged to the oddly prosaic poet William, and her dangerous attraction to the lower-class Ralph. As she struggles to decide, the lives of two other women—women’s rights activist Mary Datchet and Katharine’s mother, struggling to weave...

A selection of ground-breaking short stories, from the author of Mrs Dalloway Virginia Woolf tested the boundaries of fiction in these short stories, developing a new language of sensation, feeling and thought, and recreating in words the 'swarm and confusion of life'. Defying categorisation, the stories range from the more traditional narrative style of Solid Objects through the fragile impressionism...

Between the Acts is Virginia Woolf's final novel, now featured in Penguin Black Classics. Outwardly, it is a novel about life in a country house where a pageant is to be held in the grounds. However, it is also a striking evocation of the English experience in the months leading up to the Second World War. Through dialogue, humour, and...

Introducing Little Clothbound Classics: irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas, and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith. The hour should be evening and the season winter, for in winter the champagne brightness of the air and the sociability of the streets are grateful. In such conditions, Virginia Woolf takes to London's streets in...

Two of Virginia Woolf's most striking essays are published together in a new Black Classics edition. A Room of One's Own, based on a lecture given at Girton College, Cambridge, is one of the great feminist polemics. It ranges in its themes from Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë to the silent fate of Shakespeare's gifted (imaginary) sister, and the effects...

HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics. A Room of One’s Own and Three Guineas is a powerful collection that blends Virginia Woolf's incredible visions and eloquence. “Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind….” Based on...

Pocket Hardbacks - the new non-fiction series that combines the collectability of Clothbound Classics with the popular spirit of Great Ideas. A Room of One's Own, Woolf's blazing polemic on female creativity, the role of the writer, and the silent fate of Shakespeare's imaginary sister, remains a powerful reminder of a woman's need for financial independence and intellectual freedom.

To the Lighthouse is at once a vivid impressionist depiction of a family holiday, and a meditation on a marriage, on parenthood and childhood, on grief, tyranny and bitterness. Its use of stream of consciousness, reminiscence and shifting perspectives give the novel an intimate, poetic essence. At the time of publication in 1927, it represented an utter rejection of Victorian...

Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war, and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked, and comforted. They have enriched lives and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals, and visionaries whose ideas shook civilisation and...

Twenty new titles in the much-loved and hugely successful Penguin English Library series. The Lighthouse was then a silvery, misty-looking tower with a yellow eye that opened suddenly and softly in the evening. To the Lighthouse is at once a vivid impressionistic depiction of a family holiday, and a meditation on marriage, on parenthood and childhood, on grief, tyranny and...

Orlando, deciding not to grow old, pursues his quest for passion, adventure, fulfilment and protracted youth. Chasing a dream through the centuries, he bounds from Elizabethan England and imperial Turkey to the modern world. Will he find happiness with the exotic Russian Princess Sasha? Or is the dashing explorer Shelmerdine the ideal man? And what form will Orlando take on...

A gorgeous clothbound edition of Woolf's fantastical and dazzlingly playful novel. Orlando has always been an outsider... His longing for passion, adventure, and fulfilment takes him out of his own time. Chasing a dream through the centuries, he bounds from Elizabethan England and imperial Turkey to the modern world. Will he find happiness with the exotic Russian Princess Sasha? Or...

In the court of Queen Elizabeth I, the young nobleman Orlando begins his search for identity as he embarks on one of the greatest adventures in all of literature. An Everyman Classics hardback edition of Virginia Woolf's fantastical novel about a young Elizabethan nobleman whose life spans four centuries – and who transitions into a woman. History, fun, and gender...

Virginia Woolf’s 1925 novel of feminism, existentialism, and self-realization is an essential read for all lovers of classic literature. Virginia Woolf’s classic novel centres around Clarissa Dalloway, a married high-society woman in post–World War I London who is preparing for a party at her home in the evening. Acutely aware of her standing among other members of her elite social...

A stunning new edition of Virginia Woolf's engulfing portrait of one day in a woman's life, featuring a new foreword by Jenny Offill, the New York Times bestselling author of Weather and Dept. of Speculation. A Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition, with flaps and deckle-edged paper. Mrs. Dalloway begins with one of the most famous opening lines in literature: "Mrs. Dalloway...

Virginia Woolf's masterpiece, now in a beautiful clothbound edition. On a June morning in 1923, Clarissa Dalloway is preparing for a party and remembering her past. Elsewhere in London, Septimus Smith is suffering from shell-shock and on the brink of madness. Their days interweave and their lives converge as the party reaches its glittering climax. Here, Virginia Woolf perfected the...

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books Waking, I cry "Oh, is this your - buried treasure? The light in the heart." In these exquisite stories from the genius of English modernism, everyday objects acquire profound significance - a lump of buried green glass leads to a lifetime of obsession; a mark on the wall prompts a questioning...

A new, small format edition of Virginia Woolf's classic, empowering essay, A Room of One’s Own, with an introduction from Jeanette Winterson. Vintage Feminism - classic feminist texts in short form. WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY JEANETTE WINTERSON 'What conditions are necessary for the creation of works of art?' Security, confidence, independence, a degree of prosperity - a room of one's...

Woolf exposes the prejudices and constraints against which women writers struggled for centuries, and argues for a more equal literary establishment. A Room of One's Own and Three Guineas combines two books that were among the greatest contributions to feminist literature this century. Together, they form a brilliant attack on sexual inequality. A Room of One's Own, first published in...

Virginia Woolf's classic plea for a world in which women are free to use their gifts is as powerful and resonant as ever. In this influential extended essay, Virginia Woolf outlined what women need in order to fully make use of their abilities. Using powerful images and memorable thought experiments—such as a fictional sister of William Shakespeare, who is as...

Rediscover one of Virginia Woolf's greatest works in this beautiful new gift edition from Vintage Classics. 'My mind was warped into a new shape by her prose and it will never be the same again' Greta Gerwig Mr and Mrs Ramsay and their eight children have always holidayed at their summer house in Skye, surrounded by family friends. The novel's...

Virginia Woolf wanted to write about the vast unknown uncertain continent that is the world and us in it — Jeanette Winterson, from her introduction to The Waves The Waves is an astonishingly beautiful and poetic novel. It begins with six children playing in a garden by the sea and follows their lives as they grow up, experiencing friendship, love,...

The Waves is Woolf's innovative modernist novel. Tracing the lives of a group of friends, this novel follows their development from childhood to middle age. While social events, individual achievements, and disappointments form its narrative, the novel is most remarkable for the rich poetic language that expresses the inner life of its characters—their aspirations, their triumphs and regrets, their awareness...

A reissue of the successful PMC edition of Woolf's landmark feminist polemic A Room of One's Own, based on a lecture given at Girton College Cambridge, is one of the great feminist polemics. Woolf's blazing writing on female creativity, the role of the writer, and the silent fate of Shakespeare's imaginary sister remains a powerful reminder of a woman's need...

With introductions by Carol Ann Duffy and Valentine Cunningham In this vivid portrait of one day in a woman's life, Clarissa Dalloway is preoccupied with the last-minute details of the party she is to give that evening. In her mind, she is much more than a perfect society hostess. As she readies her house, she is flooded with memories and,...

Mrs Dalloway presents a groundbreaking work of twentieth-century literary fiction, exploring one day in the life of a woman as she prepares to give a party. This vivid portrait captures Clarissa Dalloway, who is consumed with the last-minute details of the evening's event. As she readies her house, she becomes engulfed with memories and re-examines the choices she has made...

VINTAGE DECO - Nine blazing, daring novels to celebrate the 1920s - 100 years on. The world wavered and quivered and threatened to burst into flames In this vivid portrait of one day in a woman's life, Clarissa Dalloway is preoccupied with the last-minute details of a party she is to give that evening. As she readies her house, she...

An experimental novel about a young man who yearns for something greater than his everyday life holds. New to the Vintage Classics Woolf series, this is Woolf's groundbreaking experimental novel. Jacob's Room is Virginia Woolf's first truly experimental novel. It is a portrait of a young man, tracing his life from childhood, to Cambridge University, and to his early adult...

A Room of One's Own and Three Guineas by Virginia Woolf exposes the prejudices and constraints against which women writers struggled for centuries and argues for a more equal literary establishment. With an introduction, plus extensive notes and references by Hermione Lee, this volume combines two books that were among the greatest contributions to feminist literature this century. Together, they...

Virginia Woolf's playful mock biography of a chameleonic historical figure, written for her intimate friend Vita Sackville-West. Orlando has always been an outsider... His longing for passion, adventure, and fulfilment takes him out of his own time. Chasing a dream through the centuries, he bounds from Elizabethan England and imperial Turkey to the modern world. Will he find happiness with...

'He stretched himself. He rose. He stood upright in complete nakedness before us, and while the trumpets pealed "Truth! Truth! Truth!" we have no choice left but confess - he was a woman.' A young man in the court of the ageing Queen Elizabeth I, the beautiful Orlando seems to belong everywhere and nowhere. One morning, Orlando awakens transformed—transported into...

When Mrs Ramsay tells her guests at her summer house on the Isle of Skye that they will be able to visit the nearby lighthouse the following day, little does she know that this trip will only be completed ten years later by her husband, and that a gulf of war, grief and loss will have opened in the meantime....

In 1907, eight years before she published her first novel, a twenty-five-year-old Virginia Woolf drafted three interconnected comic stories chronicling the adventures of a giantess named Violet a teasing tribute to Woolf's friend Mary Violet Dickinson. But it was only in 2022 that Woolf scholar Urmila Seshagiri discovered a final, revised typescript of the stories. The typescript revealed that Woolf...

This novel is an extraordinarily poignant evocation of a lost happiness that lives on in the memory. For years now the Ramsays have spent every summer in their holiday home in Scotland, and they expect these summers will go on forever. In this, her most autobiographical novel, Virginia Woolf captures the intensity of childhood longing and delight, and the shifting...

As Mrs Dalloway works on the preparations for a dinner party, her thoughts throughout the day wander from memories of the past to interrogations about the present and lead her to assess the choices she has made in life and love. Her monologue interweaves with the account of the distress, on that same day, of the shell-shocked veteran Septimus Warren...

A reissue of the PMC edition of Woolf's masterpiece, now with a new jacket. One of the most moving, revolutionary artworks of the twentieth century - Michael Cunningham Mrs Dalloway introduces us to Clarissa Dalloway, elegant and vivacious, as she prepares for a party and reflects on those she once loved. Meanwhile, in another part of London, Septimus Warren Smith...

In this influential work of non-fiction, Virginia Woolf outlines what women need to fully make use of their abilities. Published beautifully by Everyman's Library, this edition is printed on acid-free, cream-wove paper, with full-cloth cases, gold foil stamping, decorative endpapers, and a silk ribbon marker. A Contemporary Classics hardcover edition of Virginia Woolf's classic plea for a world in which...

A beautiful deluxe gift edition of Woolf's great masterpiece with foiled covers, marbled endpapers, sprayed edges, beautiful paper and finished with a silk ribbon. A beautiful deluxe gift edition of Woolf's great masterpiece with foiled covers, marbled endpapers, sprayed edges, beautiful paper and finished with a silk ribbon. Clarissa Dalloway is preparing to give a party. Over the course of...

Helen and Ridley Ambrose are preparing to set off for an exotic resort off the coast of South America on the Euphrosyne, a ship belonging to Helen’s brother-in-law, Willoughby Vinacre. Also travelling with them is his daughter, Rachel — a quiet, unremarkable girl raised in the London suburbs by her spinster aunts after the death of her mother. Along the...

A beautiful deluxe gift edition of Woolf's delightful, boundary-pushing classic, with foiled covers, marbled endpapers, sprayed edges, beautiful paper and finished with a silk ribbon. A beautiful deluxe gift edition of Woolf's delightful, boundary-pushing classic, with foiled covers, marbled endpapers, sprayed edges, beautiful paper and finished with a silk ribbon. As his tale begins, Orlando is a passionate young nobleman...

A beautiful edition of the groundbreaking classic novel, with a new introduction by award-winning writer Susan Choi. The enduring power of this iconic classic flows from the brilliance of its narrative technique and the impressionistic beauty of its prose. Though the novel turns on the death of its central figure, Mrs. Ramsay, her presence pervades every page in a poetic...

The fictional portrait of Woolf's close friend and lover Vita Sackville-West, the hero Orlando is a young nobleman in Elizabethan England, a dreamy and romantic youth who wakes up one day to find himself transformed, astonishingly, into a woman. Over the span of three centuries, Orlando will fall in love many times and rub shoulders with the great artists and...

In the wake of World War I and the 1918 flu pandemic, Clarissa Dalloway, elegant and vivacious, is preparing for a party and remembering those she once loved. In another part of London, Septimus Smith is suffering from shell shock and is on the brink of madness. Their days interweave and their lives converge as the party reaches its glittering...

In this extraordinary essay, Virginia Woolf examines the limitations of womanhood in the early twentieth century. With the startling prose and poetic licence of a novelist, she makes a bid for freedom, emphasizing that the lack of an independent income, and the titular room of one's own, prevents most women from reaching their full literary potential. As relevant in its...

In the wake of World War I and the 1918 flu pandemic, Clarissa Dalloway, elegant and vivacious, is preparing for a party and remembering those she once loved. In another part of London, Septimus Smith is suffering from shell shock and is on the brink of madness. Their days interweave and their lives converge as the party reaches its glittering...

The fictional portrait of Woolf's close friend and lover Vita Sackville-West, the hero Orlando is a young nobleman in Elizabethan England, a dreamy and romantic youth who wakes up one day to find himself transformed, astonishingly, into a woman. Over the span of three centuries, Orlando will fall in love many times and rub shoulders with the great artists and...

"A classic for a reason. My mind was warped into a new shape by her prose and it will never be the same again." -- Greta Gerwig The authorized, original edition of one of the great literary masterpieces of the twentieth century: a miraculous novel of family, love, war, and mortality, with a foreword from Eudora Welty. From the seemingly...

The Ramsays spend their summers on the Isle of Skye, where they happily entertain friends and family and make idle plans to visit the nearby lighthouse. Over the course of the book, the lighthouse becomes a silent witness to the ebbs and flows, the births and deaths, that punctuate the individual lives of the Ramsays. When referencing the title, avoid...

'Where are we to begin? How are we to bring order into this multitudinous chaos and so get the deepest and widest pleasure from what we read?' Published for the first time as a standalone volume, Virginia Woolf's short, impassioned essay, How Should One Read a Book? celebrates the enduring importance of great literature. In this timeless manifesto on the...