I haven't ever read anything by Virginia Woolf but really want to...any suggestions???

Thanks-Marissa

What other books do you usually like?

Mrs. Dalloway is wonderful, really moving and lovely.  To the Lighthouse has some of the best writing I've ever encountered in my life, but it's not precisely what I would call quick moving.

Orlando was the first I ever read and I just loved it.  It's strange, and wonderful, and witty - I think I read it at the absolute perfect time in my life.  I thought it was so glamorous and special.

Ah yes, the poor woman who filled her coat pockets with stones and plunged herself into the river Ouse. I recommend her final novel titled "Between the Acts"

Because of  Michael Cunningham's The Hours,  the VW novel I read first was Mrs. Dalloway.   And it explained an awful lot about a married Englishwoman's life in that era.  With the insights garnered from Mrs. Dalloway, added to my own recollections of the two other eras dealt with in The Hours, I could really "dig" Cunningham's three-part story about three women who weren't allowed to reach their full intellectual or creative capacity.

Later, I went on to read The Waves, and found it to be a very astute story, but (to me) a poignant one, about how early-life dreams don't reach fruition.

And if you feel inspired, Hermione Lee's biography of Woolf is fantastic.

I really appreciate the recommendations...think I will read Mrs. Dalloway first!

"Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself."

Be prepared for some stream-of-consciousness writing similar to James Joyce. Some readers find Woolf tediously dull and rambly.

If you read Mrs. Dalloway, I highly recommend you read Michael Cunningham's The Hours which pays homage to Woolf and her writing style. I like it better than Dalloway.

You might want to start with one of her essays. A Room of One's Own is a great one to start with. It's short, yet so rich.

Also, there is "Flush", the Elizabeth Barret Browning story told from the point of view of her little dog.  This is also a slim volumn.

I wonder what she finally decided to read.

I'm hoping it was "To the Lighthouse".  It's the only book I read in high school that I actually went out and bought.