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"It is no use trying to sum people up. One must follow hints, not exactly what is said, nor yet entirely what is done."
- Virginia Woolf, Jacob's Room



One of Woolf's first modern/stream of concicious novels. Woolf's two earlier novels (The Voyage Out & Night and Day) were more traditional. This one is more like attempting to get a sense of the Parthenon, but only by looking at shadows cast by the sun and the moon, from different directions, night and day, at different times. Eventually, one would understand - almost - a lot about the Parthenon. One might also listen, like a blind man, to the conversations of people going up and down the Acropolis. Women and men. Children. Tourists and Greeks. Again, the impressions of the Parthenon would sharpen, but never, quite, be clear.

This novel, which is more of just a character study, an experimental novel that has no direction except time, tries to examine Jacob indirectly through the impressions of those around him from his early years till he is in his twenties, pre-war. It is fragments. Noise. Smells. Hints. It is what we have. And really, it is amazing and beautiful. It also gives hints of later, fantastic Woolf novels like Mrs Dalloway and To the Lighthouse. We see in this novel, Woolf's huge potential. Her influence. The ship has turned.