Jacob's Room

One of my favourite books... Not an easy read, but certainly worth the effort!
A magnificent reflection on relationships between people, on how a person is perceived from the outside by strangers, acquaintances and the people they love most... A book on the impossibility of really knowing others, on the mental and physical space a person occupies in the world and on the empty room his absence leaves behind...

Considered Woolf's first original and distinguished work, [this book] concerns a sensitive young man who finds himself unable to reconcile his love of classical culture with the chaotic reality of World War I. His story unfolds in a series of brief impressions and conversations, stream-of-consciousness narratives, internal monologues, and letters. [The book] offers readers a first-rate example of subtle style and innovative techniques for which the author is admired.

So exquisitely crafted that both the universal qualities of youth and the uniqueness of one young man become powerfully fused, [this book] is Woolf's first stream-of-consciousness novel – nonlinear, experimental, and possessing an ending that is among the most moving in all of English literature....It remains a pivotal work in the development of the novel form and a testament to [the author's] genius and literary daring.