#140. "Orlando" by Virginia Woolf

In a career full of playful writing, "Orlando" may be Virginia Woolf's most enjoyable. The conceit of the text was to write a parodic text like it was historical. The premise itself was silly enough, finding the titular Orlando existing across multiple generations and taking on many forms. Sometimes it's female while others are male, placing Woolf in different contexts that allow for a curious study of gender politics throughout the centuries. Even as it delves into sometimes personal and affirming language, it reflects how sometimes the only difference between a man and a woman is clothes. Society places expectations on them that are in themselves ridiculous and it results in the humor in the text becoming something more intellectual. It's a commentary on what it means to be alive, finding that some things are difficult to reason with. Sometimes it's best just to be taken in by the magic of the moment. 

#139. "Mrs. Dalloway" by Virginia Woolf

A lot can happen over the course of a day. The issue is that the average person isn't often aware of every formative experience during a 24-hour period. There's very little reason to chronicle things as mundane as walking to a flower shop or sitting in a park. Even then, these can lead to some great revelations. For Virginia Woolf, she uses one day in England to uncover the intertwining lives of two individuals. They may never be in the same room nor really share similar interests, but they're more similar than you'd expect. What Woolf ultimately achieves is something sensitive and beautiful. She finds how the mundanity of every life can be full of beautiful meaning. It may be a story that comes to an end along with the sun, but it's one of the greatest, most lasting works of modernist fiction. It gives the reader a lot to think about, creating an intimacy that not only enhances the characters but connects them to every personal experience. In "Mrs. Dalloway," everything is connected. It goes beyond the physical and into somewhere mental and even spiritual. Its profundity is enormous.

#138. "Night and Day" by Virginia Woolf

While Virginia Woolf is now known as one of the most experimental writers of the modernist movement, her early work painted a very different picture. Maybe it was due to publishing novels under another company, but works like "Night and Day" were more in tune with what audiences of the time had expected. They were reminiscent of the romanticism of the 19th century, capturing a very stuffy and direct use of language that sought to trap its characters. However, within the conventional was something interesting. As the last "traditional" novel that Woolf produced, it showed signs of where her career would be heading. The characters were about trying to separate themselves from the old guard, to establish their voices in a society that didn't have a use for them. It may not be Woolf's most clever or energetic work, but it has way more personality and potential than many would think at first glance.