This extract is taken from the “Common Reader” of Virginia Woolf, a collection of essays that discuss the way that novels should be written.

The argumentation starts showing  the reader how novels are generally written: indeed  according to Virginia Woolf the novel cannot be written using traditional features.

In other words the novel cannot communicate the idea of life because it isn’t real and for this reason we should not give up, but nevertheless we should continue to try and express that.

It follows that the enormous labour is not merely thrown away but it is misplaced: it is a useless fatigue and that is demonstrated from the fact that when Virginia understands that she cannot write more she kills herself.

At this point a simple question is to be posed: which is the sense to write a novel like this?The purpose of the writer is to convey the changes and complexity of life.