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England in the Footsteps of Virginia WoolfThese three novels are required reading for people taking the trip for course credit because they are associated with places we will visit. Woolf wrote a total of ten novels, published 1915-1940. Links below take you to the Woolf seminar page about each of these novels.
Mrs. Dalloway (published 14 May 1925) – takes place in one day in London, mostly in Westminster and Regent’s Park. Details of several characters’ movements around the city are given in such detail that they can be plotted on a city map. This is the novel that inspired Michael Cunningham’s novel The Hours, now a movie with Nicole Kidman as Woolf. Jean Wilson Moorhead's book Virginia Woolf's London (2000; originally published 1987) provides a map and walking tour narrative for Mrs. Dalloway's walk.
To the Lighthouse (published 5 May 1927) –Woolf’s most autobiographical novel, set in a coastal summer house, ostensibly the Hebrides, but much more like Woolf’s own childhood summer home in St. Ives, Cornwall. To the Lighthouse and Mrs. Dalloway are Woolf’s most studied novels (hundreds of articles published about each of them), and the To the Lighthouse is the Woolf novel most often taught.
Orlando (published 2 Oct 1928) – Woolf’s most successful novel up to that time, in terms of sales. Depicts an aristocrat named Orlando, who lives 400 years and transforms from man to woman in the 19th century. Orlando is based on Woolf’s friend Vita Sackville-West, whose family history provides details of Orlando’s long life. Orlando’s country house strongly resembles Knole, the family home where Vita grew up.