VIRGINIA WOOLF

THE COMMON READER

1             What is missing in conventional novels?

According to Virginia Woolf in conventional novels the reader cannot find what he or she seeks because "life has more than one point of view. That is the reason why the novelist criticizes novels that are defined as "ill-fitting vestments". Novels seem not to be the production of what writers would express but the result of  a tyrant's costriction.. So writers were not free to write; the tyrant wants writers to make plot, comedy, tragedy and an air of probability putting everything together impeccably.

2             How does Virginia Woolf describe life?

“Life is not a series of gig-lamps symmetrically arranged” but life is “a luminous halo, a semi-transparent envelope surrounding us from the beginning to the end”.

We live our lives in every moment and not to "spare". and a continuous circle where everything has its place, its mean and its consequence. only at the end of we realize how and what we have lived.

3             What does Virginia Woolf mean by “the life of Monday or Tuesday”?

In my opinion "life on the Monday or Tuesday" means the life of every-day.

4             What is the task of the novelist and how should fiction be written?

The writer should write novels following the vision of his mind; describing the true life. In fact the author seems compelled by a tyrant to provide a plot, a narrative flawless. Everything not to go "out of fashion." Instead a novel should be written according to the inspiration and the views of the writer and according to what the readers want to read.

5          Can you see any similarity between Woolf's ideas about fiction and Monet's impressionist painting?
Woolf's idea about fiction has some in common with Monet's painting: both are in conflict with the generally accepted conventions of their time and both believe the task of the artist/novelist is to describe as complex.