44 pages • 1 hour read
Virginia WoolfA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide depicts characters with colonial, racist, patriarchal, and anti-gay attitudes, and contains references to rape.
The novel opens in an English village on an evening in June 1939; it is the day before the annual pageant, which is a village tradition, is to take place. Bartholomew “Bart” Oliver, an elderly man who is retired from the Indian Civil Service, is at the Olivers’ family estate, Pointz Hall, speaking with Mrs. Haines, a woman who is married to a gentleman farmer. Bart is discussing the village cesspool and the lack of running water, but Mrs. Haines finds the topic inappropriate. Bart’s daughter-in-law, Isabella “Isa” Oliver, enters the room and thinks about how she is in love with Rupert Haines, Mrs. Haines’s husband. Isa knows they cannot be together because they are married to other people. Isa’s husband, Giles Oliver, is a stockbroker who works in London.
The following morning, Bart’s eccentric, widowed sister, Mrs. Lucy Swithin, who is also at Pointz Hall, wakes for breakfast. Mrs. Swithin is a devout Christian. She is reading a book about prehistoric England, which states that Piccadilly was filled with rhododendron forests.
By Virginia Woolf
A Haunted House
A Haunted House
Virginia Woolf
A Haunted House and Other Short Stories
A Haunted House and Other Short Stories
Virginia Woolf
A Room of One's Own
A Room of One's Own
Virginia Woolf
Flush: A Biography
Flush: A Biography
Virginia Woolf
How Should One Read a Book?
How Should One Read a Book?
Virginia Woolf
Jacob's Room
Jacob's Room
Virginia Woolf
Kew Gardens
Kew Gardens
Virginia Woolf
Modern Fiction
Modern Fiction
Virginia Woolf
Moments of Being
Moments of Being
Virginia Woolf
Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown
Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown
Virginia Woolf
Mrs. Dalloway
Mrs. Dalloway
Virginia Woolf
Orlando
Orlando
Virginia Woolf
The Death of the Moth
The Death of the Moth
Virginia Woolf
The Duchess and the Jeweller
The Duchess and the Jeweller
Virginia Woolf
The Lady in the Looking Glass
The Lady in the Looking Glass
Virginia Woolf
The Mark on the Wall
The Mark on the Wall
Virginia Woolf
The New Dress
The New Dress
Virginia Woolf
The Voyage Out
The Voyage Out
Virginia Woolf
The Waves
The Waves
Virginia Woolf
Three Guineas
Three Guineas
Virginia Woolf