Julia: It’s funny, I didn’t think the friends were ever talking to each other. The best opportunity for that seemed to be their first reunion in a restaurant; but I came away with an impression of each observing their own perceptions of and reactions to the others.
Certainly your impression is a popular one, but I will maintain my reading. My first quote above is from that restaurant scene, and in at least one of the restaurant scenes Louis and Rhoda have a parenthetical aside together in which they are fairly clearly talking to each other. Not talking in any kind of normal, everyday way that a person would actually do—but “saying,” “confessing” in the terms of the novel, I definitely believe.

Frances: Your use of the word “plant” is especially appropriate here I think as I feel her writing so self-conscious in this book. I think that her craft is always evident but nowhere more than here.
I actually had “place” or something less specific but went back and revised it thinking the exact same thing. It seems to happen to me every time, but when I flip through a Woolf novel to look back at passages I’ve flagged I’m surprised at how much her craft is evident even from a quick lookback (rather than a full re-read). Here, in The Waves, I thought in many ways she failed the most, because her ambition was so great. But still, the craft was there, amazingly strongly.

Bellezza: Now, I just need to figure out where, exactly, the connections lie beyond the vague images I conjure up.
Yes, that is part of the problem with letting her words wash over you the way at least I often do. And what re-reads are for!

Claire: I realize it’s the least experimental and does feel at times that it opposes the real purpose of the book, however, I thought his musings about the passing of life so enlightening. Maybe Woolf felt compelled to put in on there to satisfy her need to explain even a little what the whole book really boils down to and what she really, finally meant to say?
I wouldn’t say it was unenlightening; however, I did think she felt somehow “compelled” to put it in. But the road not taken is very difficult to imagine; who could say what the novel would really be without that final passage?

Violet: I found this rather “explained” things; the different aspects of Woolf were “talking” to one another, and Bernard being the story-teller, got to tell the story, as it were.
I especially like your point about Bernard getting to be the storyteller, because he certainly is, grasping at it the way he does at the end—where did I hear someone mention he was like the Ancient Mariner?

As I mentioned to you on Twitter, after I had written my post I read somewhere that the characters in The Waves may all be seen as aspects of Woolf herself, except perhaps for Lewis, the “outsider”, who represented Leonard Woolf, who was Jewish. I found this rather “explained” things; the different aspects of Woolf were “talking” to one another, and Bernard being the story-teller, got to tell the story, as it were.

One thing is certain though. We all have different ideas about the book, and it has stretched and challenged us, and I think that is what good literature is about.

I also thought Bernard’s final monologue a bit unbalanced in relation to the rest of the novel, but must admit that I found it one of the parts I most enjoyed and one of the least tedious. I realize it’s the least experimental and does feel at times that it opposes the real purpose of the book, however, I thought his musings about the passing of life so enlightening. Maybe Woolf felt compelled to put in on there to satisfy her need to explain even a little what the whole book really boils down to and what she really, finally meant to say? I don’t know. This book really still eludes me. Don’t know if I’ll ever reread it again, though it definitely will stay with me.

Thanks so much for reading along, Nicole! I always love reading your thoughts as you make always make a lot of sense and I always learn something from you.

Your use of the word “plant” is especially appropriate here I think as I feel her writing so self-conscious in this book. I think that her craft is always evident but nowhere more than here. And that brings to mind all those issues with language, authenticity, subjectivity in The Waves. There is so much here.

Great post as usual, and thanks so much for joining these conversations.