Attorneys of Virginia

Jacob's Room

Description

"Jacob's Room," an impressionistic novel by Virginia Woolf, was first published in 1922. Experimental in form, "Jacob's Room" centers on the character of Jacob Flanders, a lonely young man unable to synthesize his love of classical culture with the chaotic reality of contemporary society and turbulence of World War I. In "Jacob's Room," Virginia Woolf examines character development and the meaning of a life by means of a series of brief impressions and conversations, stream of consciousness, internal monologue, and Jacob's letters to his mother. The story is told mainly through the perspectives of the women in Jacob's life, including the repressed upper-middle-class Clara Durrant and the uninhibited young art student Florinda, with whom he has an affair. In zealous pursuit of classicism, Jacob studies the ancients at Cambridge and travels to Greece. Jacob's time in London forms a large part of the story, though towards the end of the novel he travels to Italy, then Greece. He either idealizes or ignores the women who admire him. Jacob eventually dies in the war and fittingly, at the end of the novel all that remains of Jacob's life are scattered objects in an abandoned room. The novel is a departure from Virginia Woolf's earlier novels, "The Voyage Out" and "Night and Day," which are more conventional in form. The work is seen as an important modernist text; its experimental form is viewed as a progression of the innovative writing style Virginia Woolf presented in her earlier collection of short fiction titled "Monday or Tuesday."

Reviews

Rating: 3 / 5
Date: 2010-09-04
Summary: "Well-written, but not for someone looking for a good story"

Let me start off by saying that I read this book for a university class, and that I probably wouldn't have this book from front to back otherwise. That being said, after finishing it for the course, I think the book will appeal to some readers but seem like nonsense to others. Anyone looking for a straight-forward, clear story with a "traditional" literary storyline will be sorely dissappointed. The plot is really choppy and the "storyline" (if you can call it that) doesn't really matter.

Rather, the whole point of the book is it's prose, and Woolf's momentary glances on life and the smallest details of human living. It's also very dense, full of different narrators, and at many times difficult to follow and slow to get through. But some short moments contain brilliance. I might suggest choosing another Woolf novel to read, unless you're looking for a different type of beauty, in which case, choose this one.

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Rating: 3 / 5
Date: 2009-06-21
Summary: "I love Virginia Woolfs style!"

I found this book to be a pleasant read and I enjoyed Virginia Woolfs discriptive witing style.

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Rating: 4 / 5
Date: 2008-09-10
Summary: "A hundred snapshots of a man who can't be seen..."


In *Jacob's Room* Virginia Woolf creates a world of quiet desperation. Each character shoulders his or her share of the universal burden we're born to bear as human beings: a mutual exclusivity that cannot be breached no matter how close we get to another. We are separate, lonely creatures, each ultimately unknowable to every other.

An ominous atmosphere of alienation hangs heavily over *Jacob's Room* that is only aggravated by the unceasing attempt of Woolf's dramatis personae to understand Jacob--and Jacob's attempt to understand those trying to understand him. In spite of the best of efforts and intentions of everyone involved--it's all heartbreakingly futile.

*Jacob's Room* is basically a coming-of-age novel but told in a remote omniscient voice that takes up and drops the viewpoints of everyone in Jacob's life, including Jacob, and, ironically, the author herself, who implies that not even she knows exactly who Jacob really is. The writing is sedate, elliptical, nothing much happens in the novel, or it happens "off-stage," leaving its impression on the sediment of what we can see in the superficial mannerisms and conversations of those around us.

Woolf's narration hops around from character to character as if trying to get as many testimonies as possible, as if, in the gestalt of viewpoints, a conclusive portrait of Jacob might emerge. In the end, he's as much of an enigma as ever--and the most remarkable thing is that he's a perfectly ordinary, even rather dull, specimen of human being.

Unless you share Woolf's reflective sensibility, this can be a frustrating "so-what?" sort of book. Beautifully written, *Jacob's Room* is essentially a disquieting meditation on human life, death, and identity in the face of a cold impersonal eternity. It's a cry of despair, almost suicidal at times, neither loud, nor dramatic, and all the more powerful for its quiet certainty of the hopelessness of it all.

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Rating: 3 / 5
Date: 2007-09-18
Summary: "Jacob's Nonlinear Narrated Discontented World"

By far the greatest virtue of this book is Woolf's deviation from adopting a traditional narrative structure. Although Jacob is the main character of the story, the narration does not solely focus on him, or anything remotely connected to him, or for that matter proceed in a straight chronological order. At least once in the course of the story, the narration goes backwards, forward, digresses, ends abruptly, unfinished, omits transitions, constantly switches what is being narrated, addresses the reader, frequently alternates between different characters point of views, and ends ambiguously.

On the other hand, the content, of what is being narrated, falls woefully short of matching the innovative narration style Woolf adopts. Nothing of any kind of significance occurs in the book; to be quite honest, the events are rather mundane. Two incidents that happened in Jacob's childhood are described, he goes off to college, attends a couple social events, has a couple relationships with girls, travels to France and Italy, and gets into a couple of fights with his friend Bonamy.

So, since one aspect of the novel (the structure) speaks in its favor, and another aspect (the content) speaks against it, is this a book you should read? To be fair, I should mention that there is actually more content in the book, it just happens to be implicitly implied throughout most of the book, but becomes apparent towards the book's end.

Buried within the story's unspectacular content, is Woolf's discontent with society. She ridicules the writing of letters, the leaving of calling cards, gossip, and women's obsession with fashion. Jacob calls people beastly, feels disgusted at social gatherings he attends, the describes the happiest moment of his life as be completely isolated from humanity and society atop a mountain, has an interest in politics because he wants to change the world, and as war descend upon the world, he leaves his possessions behind and bids society adieu. And perhaps the most important thing to point out is that pretty much everyone that sees Jacob, comments that he is beautiful. I think that his outer appearance is a reflection of his inner self; he is beautiful because by being aloof and critical of society, he has not been tainted by it.

All this can be read as Woolf agreeing with Rousseau about the corrosive affects society has on man. Society instead of ennobling and enlightening man has quite the opposite effect; society corrupts man.

So, if breaking with tradition and discontentment are your cup of tea, then this is the book for you.

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Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2007-07-17
Summary: "The Best Fiction by Woolf - Or Close To Her Best"

Virginia Woolf (1882 - 1941) was a well known writer, critic, feminist, and publisher. This was her third novel.

As background information, I read her first novel "The Voyage Out" published in 1915, skipped her second novel - which is considered to be a flop, Night and Day from 1919 - and then read "Jacob's Room," her third, then went on and read "Mrs. Dalloway," her fourth, and next read "To The Lighthouse," etc. Also, I read some of Woolf's non-fiction.

"The Voyage Out" is simple and straightforward work and it might remind the reader of a Jane Austen novel, but it set on a ship and then at a remote location. It is over 400 pages long, and has an Austen theme. After her second novel - which did not do very well - Woolf decided to be more risky and creative with the next book. She changed her style and approach to the novel and Woolf uses the stream of consciousness technique to bring a sense of the chaos and shortness of a young man's life around the time of World War I, Jacob's life, i.e.: from the pandemonium of Jacob's life as portrayed by Woolf through the use of the stream of the consciousness technique, we eventually have clarity in the novel. She carries this writing style on into the similarly chaotic story in the novel "Mrs. Dalloway."

The present story is about a young man Jacob Flanders who goes to Cambridge as a student, then he goes on a trip to Italy and Greece, and then returns and goes on to fight in World War I. Without giving away any of the critical plot elements and possibly ruining the enjoyment of reading the book, one can say that this is a bit of an odd book. It starts slowly; the reader is not certain what Woolf is trying to accomplish and where she is going with the story. But if you stay with the read one gets into the stream of consciousness feel and rythm which gives a strong feeling or sensation to what Woolf is trying to achieve.

This is an excellent novel written by Woolf at her prime and is similar to Mrs.Dalloway but covers a different subject matter. Her approach lends itself to the subject and it is quite effective as in "Mrs. Dalloway." If you want to read a conventional novel by Woolf, then I recommend her first novel, "The Voyage Out."

In any case, I enjoyed the read and recommend it as a good example of Virginia Woolf's writing.