Jacob's Room

Virginia Woolf's third novel follows the short life of Jacob Flanders, from his childhood on the Cornish coast through his time at Cambridge, his years in London and his travels in Greece, before the First World War. The book is told through the impressions of the people around him, such as his mother, his friends and the women who love him, rather than by Jacob himself, who remains elusive. Woolf experiments with form, using fragments and shifts of viewpoint, and leaves a portrait that is full of gaps.

Readers of modernist fiction will find an early example of Woolf's experiments. It suits those who want to see how she developed the style of her later novels.

Deep, inward-looking, contemplative, open-ended and thought-provoking; a demanding read.

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