Jacob's Room
Virginia Woolf
Contains spoilers for the entire book.
Discussion topics
Topic 01 of 08
An absent hero
Why do you think Woolf builds a novel around a hero we only see from outside?
Keep the conversation going
- What do we actually know about Jacob?
- Did you feel you knew him by the end?
There is no single right answer. Bring your own reading.
Discussion topics
Why do you think Woolf builds a novel around a hero we only see from outside?
Keep the conversation going
- What do we actually know about Jacob?
- Did you feel you knew him by the end?
What does Jacob's mother's life, seen in glimpses, show you?
Keep the conversation going
- What did you make of the letters she writes?
- How does she see her sons?
What does Cambridge give Jacob, and what does it take for granted?
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- What did you make of the narrator's comments on the women at the chapel service?
- Who is left out of Jacob's world?
How do the women Jacob meets, from Florinda to Clara Durrant to Fanny Elmer, see him?
Keep the conversation going
- Why do so many of them love him?
- What does he give them in return?
How does Woolf make London itself a character?
Keep the conversation going
- Which scene of the city stayed with you?
- Where is Jacob most himself?
What does Jacob's journey to Greece, and Sandra Wentworth Williams, mean to him?
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- What does he hope to find at the Acropolis?
- Why does that episode end as it does?
How does the coming war hover over the novel?
Keep the conversation going
- When did you first sense it?
- How did you feel about how Woolf tells us of Jacob's fate?
How did the last scene, with Betty holding Jacob's old shoes, affect you?
Keep the conversation going
- What is left of a person in their room?
- Why does Woolf end so quietly?
There is no single right answer. Bring your own reading.