The Waves
Virginia Woolf
Contains spoilers for the entire book.
Discussion topics
Topic 01 of 08
Six voices
How did you find reading a novel made only of six voices speaking in turn?
Keep the conversation going
- Could you tell Bernard, Susan, Rhoda, Neville, Jinny and Louis apart?
- Whose voice did you feel closest to?
There is no single right answer. Bring your own reading.
Discussion topics
How did you find reading a novel made only of six voices speaking in turn?
Keep the conversation going
- Could you tell Bernard, Susan, Rhoda, Neville, Jinny and Louis apart?
- Whose voice did you feel closest to?
What do the italic interludes, the sun crossing the sky over the sea, add?
Keep the conversation going
- How do they mark the passing of a life?
- Which interlude did you find most beautiful?
What do the first chapters reveal about who each child will become?
Keep the conversation going
- What did you make of the kiss that Susan sees?
- What fears does each carry from the start?
Why does Percival, who never speaks, matter so much to the six?
Keep the conversation going
- How did you feel about his death in India?
- What does he represent for each of them?
What did you make of Rhoda and her sense of having no face?
Keep the conversation going
- How does she move through the world?
- How did you feel when you learn of her death?
How do Louis's need to belong and Neville's devotion to love shape their lives?
Keep the conversation going
- What does Louis's accent mean to him?
- What does Neville want from the people he loves?
What happens at the dinner at Hampton Court, when the six are together again in middle age?
Keep the conversation going
- What has each of them become?
- What, if anything, still binds them?
How did you respond to Bernard's long final speech, and his defiance of death?
Keep the conversation going
- Has he become the others, or spoken for them?
- What did you make of 'The waves broke on the shore'?
There is no single right answer. Bring your own reading.