Virginia Woolf - Between the Acts

I love Virginia Woolf. I really do. This short novel was assigned for my class which just finished yesterday (8/8) and was themed Modernism and Postmodernism for British literature (honestly, though I enjoyed the literature, postmodernism is a tricksy beast that doesn't like to be pinned down). Between the Acts is the last novel Virginia Woolf wrote before committing suicide and it was published by her husband shortly after her death.

It's set in a small English town, not too far away from either London or the coast, where there will be a pageant that evening. It predominately follows the Oliver family, Bartholomew, his widowed sister Lucy (Mrs. Swithin), his son Giles and his wife Isa (they have two young children, but the kids aren't a huge part of the novel). Other central characters include Mrs. Manresa (with whom Giles is having an affair), William Dodge (her companion), and Miss La Trobe (the author of the play). The pageant play at the heart of the novel has to do with English history.

To me, the most interesting part of the novel was Giles Oliver's absolute fury towards practically every other character, and his relationships with Isa, Lucy, and Mrs. Manresa. I wrote a really lovely paper about this novel ("Impotent Patriarchy and Shifting Gender Roles" if you were interested) so at the moment I am thinking about the novel more analytically rather than for entertainment.

I also got to read a few of her essays, some of which were assigned for class and another that I read to support the paper I wrote. "Modern Fiction" and "Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown" were assigned and were fun to read. Woolf had a sort of wry humor in her non-fiction that was highly entertaining to me. I also read "Thoughts on Peace in an Air Raid," which was just a lovely piece of writing. All three of these essays are available in their entirety online, so I highly recommend you read them!