(Adeline) Virginia Woolf was an English novelist and essayist regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century.
During the interwar period, Woolf was a significant figure in London literary society and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Her most famous works include the novels Mrs. Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), and Orlando (1928), and the book-length essay A Room of One's Own (1929) with its famous dictum, "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."
A woman is travelling on a train, watching the other passengers. When she looks into other people鈥檚 eyes, she knows exactly who they are. Because our eyes are a window into our soul. That鈥檚 why most people avert their eyes in public. But one woman doesn鈥檛 avert her eyes.
I can actually easily relate to this story, as I too spent a few years regularly taking the train. You鈥檙e bored, counting down the seconds as the train slowly takes you to your destination. When you look at your fellow passengers, you make assumptions and your mind starts to wander. Your imagination runs wild. When you get off the train, you feel like you got to know some of your fellow passengers. You know who they are and what they want to accomplish in life. You know their dirty little secrets. But you never spoke a word to them. You feel like you know everything about them. And yet, you know nothing at all.
It's a short story about a woman on a train. Probably not for everyone, but it鈥檚 well written. So it鈥檚 definitely worth a read, should you be interested in the premise.
Description: Adeline Virginia Woolf (25 January 1882 ? 28 March 1941) was an English author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century. During the interwar period, Woolf was a significant figure in London literary society and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Her most famous works include the novels Mrs Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927) and Orlando (1928), and the book-length essay A Room of One's Own (1929), with its famous dictum, "A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."
Woman Reading, Agnes Goodsir, c. 1910
Opening: Such an expression of unhappiness was enough by itself to make one鈥檚 eyes slide above the paper鈥檚 edge to the poor woman鈥檚 face鈥攊nsignificant without that look, almost a symbol of human destiny with it. Life鈥檚 what you see in people鈥檚 eyes; life鈥檚 what they learn, and, having learnt it, never, though they seek to hide it, cease to be aware of鈥攚hat? That life鈥檚 like that, it seems. Five faces opposite鈥攆ive mature faces鈥攁nd the knowledge in each face.
Opening lines: Such an expression of unhappiness was enough by itself to make one鈥檚 eyes slide above the paper鈥檚 edge to the poor woman鈥檚 face鈥攊nsignificant without that look, almost a symbol of human destiny with it. Life鈥檚 what you see in people鈥檚 eyes; life鈥檚 what they learn, and, having learnt it, never, though they seek to hide it, cease to be aware of鈥攚hat? That life鈥檚 like that, it seems.