Between the Acts

By Virginia Woolf

Published posthumously by Hogarth Press shortly after Wooolf’s suicide, Between The Acts was her last novel and, strangely perhaps, closest to the first. It takes place over a day before, during and after the staging of an amateur pageant in an English village just before the onset of the Second World War. Unlike her major fictional works, Between The Acts is dialogue driven, rather than introspective, and there is also an omniscient sense to it, as though Woolf is directing the characters much as they would later be directed in the pageant. The play itself takes place in three scenes disconnected by years of history leading from a Shakespearian romance, onto a Restoration comedy and finally a triumphant Victorian parade in a notional Hyde Park.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Sep 3, 2013
• ISBN: 9781291546804

Virginia Woolf

A pioneer of stream of consciousness narrative, Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) is considered one of the most important modernist writers of the twentieth century. After primary tutoring at home, she attended the Ladies’ Department of Kings College London, where she was introduced to a handful of feminists and became involved in the women’s movement. Later, she joined the Bloomsbury Group, where she met her husband, Leonard Woolf. Together, they founded Hogarth Press, under which they published most of her work. Also a brilliant essayist, intellectual, and critic, she remains one of the most influential authors of all time.

Reviews for Between the Acts

[danielstj · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This was not Woolf at her best.

[drfuriosa · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A thoughtful and complex examination of marriage and relationships as framed within a play. Woolf tackles the story of a day and again, it is effective at discussing the problems of the world, society, and self that plague us.

[shanaqui_1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I really, really don't like Virginia Woolf's fiction. There's a nice flow to the writing, a nice lyrical feeling, but the way she chooses to write about things seems to me pretentious and boring, and sort of... scatterbrained. I'd like to love Woolf's writing, as my favourite writer Ursula Le Guin does, but I just can't seem to connect with or get anything out of her writing. I didn't see the "point" in it, I suppose. There were bits I liked about it -- the play, for example, at the part where they hold the mirrors up to show the audience themselves, and the concept of 'between the acts', which can be taken to mean so many things.

I'm hoping studying this novel and hearing lectures on it will make it a bit less impenetrable. If it does, I swear I'll give To The Lighthouse another chance, too. I just feel like you shouldn't require one hundred and thirty-one footnotes to understand a one-hundred and thirty page long story published in the nineteen forties...

[joririchardson · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

"Between the Acts" covers one day in the lives of a group of people living in a small English countryside town. The setting is just before World War II, and they are preparing to put together their annual play. I was expecting this book to be another "Mrs. Dalloway," and though there are similarities, this book falls flat in its simplicity, vague plot, and string of characters, while "Mrs. Dalloway" builds off of these same points. This book should not be looked at as a novel, but rather a spare description of a day's events.The characters were slightly interesting, but I kept asking myself what the point of this book was. Perhaps to allow us a glimpse of a commoner's view on the history of England? The play was a brief exploration of the townspeople's native land through the ages, and Woolf allows us to "watch" the play while still hearing what all of the characters in the audience are commenting (often not complimentary). However, if this is indeed what Woolf wanted the book to be about, it didn't work out all that well. I hardly remembered the subject of the plays until I flipped back through it while writing this review. The connection with English history wasn't a striking one. I think that she wanted to focus on the characters more, and yet, I never felt anything for any of them.Isa was the only one who interested me mildly. She is a middle aged woman who is married with children, and finds herself wanting more out of life. She refers to her husband as "the father of my children," seemingly in an effort to remind herself of her duty and attachment to him. She has a crush on another man, but they never even speak to each other.I felt that none of the characters were ever explored deeply enough to qualify this little volume as a true, character driven story.As a result, this is a nothing-driven story, and it is only Woolf's beautiful prose that saves it. I love Virginia Woolf's writing style, and that is what kept me reading. However, even that was not up to its usual standard here.I would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of Woolf herself, but most likely not to anyone else.

[rmckeown_9 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really like Virginia Woolf. Mrs. Dalloway, Orlando, and To the Lighthouse number among my favorite novels. Her letters and diaries also provide wonderful insights into this troubled but brilliant author. Michael Cunningham’s gripping novel, The Hours, weaves together Woolf’s writing of Mrs. Dalloway, and a housewife reading the novel in the 50s, and a 90s woman planning a party for a friend who has won a poetry prize. Between the Acts – along with Dalloway and Lighthouse -- also found their way into Edward Mendelson’s interesting work, The Things That Matter: What Seven Classic Novels Have to Say About the Stages of Life. (See my review elsewhere). So, I have a strong connection with Woolf. Acts is the only one of her novels I have never read.That was a long introduction to get to what I wanted to say -- I was somewhat disappointed in this story. I found the plot confusing, which only exacerbated the difficulty of keeping the characters straight. Some characters were referred to by name, but I had to guess who was whom when unnamed characters appeared.The novel relates the events of a single day in the life of the Oliver family who host a village pageant at their country estate. Beneath the surface, the villagers suffer from sorrow, boredom, angst, and confusion about the pageant, which tells the story of a number of episodes from English history. The play reveals the inner conflicts and dissatisfactions they all share.Woolf’s wonderful prose flowed over every page, but the interruptions to clear up confusions diluted my enjoyment. True, I did have a lot on my mind last week, so I will try this one again later. Also, this was her last novel before she walked into the River Ouse, so perhaps it needed much more work, she knew it, and was exhausted to the point of giving up. (3-1/2 Stars)--Jim, 10/23/10

[whitewavedarling · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Ambitious, but fragmented. Depending on your perception of this novel and its intentions, I'd feel safe saying that it's either far too short or far too long. For me, it was simply tiresome. While I see the intentions coming through, and find those interesting, in the end I just didn't see this coming close to living up to its potential.

[chris_v_7 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Virginia Woolf's last novel was published soon after her suicide and it's a book that I find elusive although I enjoy her peerless imaginative writing. I suspect if I re-read in a few years it might yield hidden treasures.

[flyingdutchman_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The second novel I've read by Woolf. It's the last one she wrote before committing suicide and one of her shortest. Using a lot of modernist techniques it also illustrates Woolf's feeling for language. With a short and economic style she can create moments of beautiful literature in this novel. The point of Between the Acts is this use of language. Forget the plot, read and reread the lines.

[rampaginglibrarian · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Read this for a literary theory class. Love it because it's Virginia, sense of Theatre, between world wars, Rusty Brown, must reread

[jentifer · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Easily my favorite Virginia Woolf book, this short novel take place on a summer day during which a play is performed by neighborhood children. This is the last novel she wrote, and I think it's a lovely culmination and showcase of the various styles she pioneered. For the record, my second favorite Woolf is Orlando.