Between The Acts (annotated): The Virginia Woolf Library Annotated Edition - Softcover

Woolf, Virginia; Hussey, Mark

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0156034735 ISBN 13: 9780156034739

Publisher: Mariner Books, 2008

Synopsis

In Woolf's final novel, villagers present their annual pageant, made up of scenes from the history of England, at a house in the heart of the country as personal dramas simmer and World War II looms.
 
Annotated and with an introduction by Melba Cuddy-Keane

About this title

Book Description:

Unlike most previous editions, the Cambridge edition returns to the final version of the novel as Woolf left it. With detailed explanatory notes, a chronology and an informative critical introduction, this volume will allow scholars to develop a fuller understanding of Woolf's last work.

From the Back Cover:

"Virginia Woolf stands as the chief figure of modernism in England and must be included with Joyce and Proust in the realization of experiments that have completely broken with tradition."--The New York Times

 

Between the Acts takes place on a June 1939 day at Pointz Hall, the Oliver family's country house in the heart of England. In the garden, everyone from the village has gathered to present the annual pageant--scenes from the history of England, beginning with the Elizabethan Age and ending with "ourselves," the audience. As the story unfolds, the lives of the villagers also take shape. We learn of the strained relationship between Isa Oliver and her husband, Giles, discontented stockbroker and son of Bart Oliver, the owner of Pointz Hall. When a storm rushes in and hastens the completion of the play, the performers and the audience take their leave, and Giles and Isa are finally left alone. In its juxtaposition of interior life and social life, personal history and world history, Woolf’s final novel reveals the richness of what happens between the acts. 

Virginia Woolf (1882-1941), one of the major literary figures of the twentieth century, transformed the art of the novel. The author of numerous novels, collections of letters, journals, and short stories, she was an admired literary critic and a master of the essay form.

Mark Hussey, general editor of Harcourt's annotated Woolf series, is professor of English at Pace University in New York City and editor of the Woolf Studies Annual.

Melba Cuddy-Keane is professor of English and Northrop Frye Scholar at the University of Toronto.

 

About this edition

• Publisher: Mariner Books
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0156034735
• ISBN 13: 9780156034739
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 220