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Product Description
Jacob's Room is Virginia Woolf's first truly experimental novel. It is a portrait of a young man, who is both representative and victim of the social values which led Edwardian society into war. Jacob's life is traced from the time he is a small boy playing on the beach, through his years in Cambridge, then in artistic London, and finally making a trip to Greece, but this is no orthodox Bildungsroman. Jacob is presented in glimpses, in fragments, as Woolf breaks down traditional ways of representing character and experience. The novel's composition coincided with the consolidation of Woolf's interest in feminism, and she criticizes the privileged thoughtless smugness of patriarchy, `the other side', `the men in clubs and Cabinets'. Her stylistic innovations are conscious attempts to realize and develop women's writing and the novel dramatizes her interest in the ways both language and social environments shape differently the lives of men and women.
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With introductions by Lawrence Norfolk and Elisabeth Bronfen
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A typically wonderful read from the great Virginia Woolf. While Jacob is on the one hand the centre of this book, he is also the enigma which the reader never quite finds. We hear many others talking of Jacob, but we catch only fleeting glimpses of Jacob himself, making this book a strange, at times disorientating read. This however, is clearly Woolf's intention, as she plays with notions of character, authorial omniscience, and coherent plotting. A great example of classic modernist fiction from one of Britain's most celebrated authors. If you are prepared for a challenging read, then buy this book- but prepare for your expectations of what constitutes a novel to be put under the spotlight.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I'm in a Woolf phase right now and came to this book after reading her later works: 'Mrs Dalloway', 'To the Lighthouse', 'Orlando' as well her non-fiction piece 'A Room of One's Own'. Although lacking the brilliance of these later works, 'Jacob's Room' is well worth a read if only to see Woolf starting out on the process of trying to dismantle the idea that novel = linear narrative, fully rounded characterisation, and an omniscient author.
I think 'Jacob's Room' is a very 'impressionistic' novel in that we get no concrete sense of who the main character, Jacob Flanders, is. As another reviewer has said, we only catch glimpses of him. There is no god-like omniscient author forever telling you what the character thinks or feels. (To me this reflects the increasingly godless modern world we live in.) Also, the dialogue in the novel is often disjointed and I think this reflects the atomised modern world we live in. I assume that by writing dialogue which lacks linearity and fluidity Woolf more truthfully reflects human to human interaction: it's often full of non-sequitors, fails to flow easily, is interrupted etc.
If you're prepared for a challenging read and want to see how Woolf got started on the process of challenging the then accepted norms of fiction wfiting - then buy this book.
I think 'Jacob's Room' is a very 'impressionistic' novel in that we get no concrete sense of who the main character, Jacob Flanders, is. As another reviewer has said, we only catch glimpses of him. There is no god-like omniscient author forever telling you what the character thinks or feels. (To me this reflects the increasingly godless modern world we live in.) Also, the dialogue in the novel is often disjointed and I think this reflects the atomised modern world we live in. I assume that by writing dialogue which lacks linearity and fluidity Woolf more truthfully reflects human to human interaction: it's often full of non-sequitors, fails to flow easily, is interrupted etc.
If you're prepared for a challenging read and want to see how Woolf got started on the process of challenging the then accepted norms of fiction wfiting - then buy this book.
1 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Jacob's Room is Virginia Woolf's third novel being published in 1922. The main protagonist of the book (Jacob Flanders) represents her brother Thoby Stephen who had died earlier in 1906. The narrative of Jacob's Room differs from her first two novels as Woolf experimented with a different style from the fictional norms she had used in her first two books but which she felt had inhibited her.
The storyline of Jacob's Room follows the life of Jacob Flanders from adolescence through his time in college and then to adulthood. It is narrated in the main from a female perspective by the different characters who knew him best thus the readers interpretation of Jacob is formed from an eclectic mix of opinions. I do not feel this is a bad thing as different readers will gain different viewpoints from the novel. In part replicating how individuals perceive differently from the information and environment that is presented to them. Even though the style of this novel may differ from her earlier works it is still worth reading if you want to gain a fuller representation and appreciation of Virginia Woolf's literary output.
The storyline of Jacob's Room follows the life of Jacob Flanders from adolescence through his time in college and then to adulthood. It is narrated in the main from a female perspective by the different characters who knew him best thus the readers interpretation of Jacob is formed from an eclectic mix of opinions. I do not feel this is a bad thing as different readers will gain different viewpoints from the novel. In part replicating how individuals perceive differently from the information and environment that is presented to them. Even though the style of this novel may differ from her earlier works it is still worth reading if you want to gain a fuller representation and appreciation of Virginia Woolf's literary output.
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