Abstract
The reader knows what the young woman means because the conversation occurs near the close of ‘Kew Gardens’ and Virginia Woolf has already captured ‘it’: the essence of the natural and the human world of the garden. From the beginning of her career Woolf had been pursuing the ‘uncircumscribed spirit’ of life, but she had been frustrated by the methods of conventional fiction. Now, she makes no attempt to deal with ‘it’ discursively — she does not, as she might have done in The Voyage Out, have a pair of sensitive individuals discuss the ‘what-ness’ of Kew. Neither does she offer straightforward description. The sketch represents the artistic application of Woolf’s famous manifesto published only the month before in her essay ‘Modern Fiction’: ‘Life is not a series of gig-lamps symmetrically arranged: life is a luminous halo, a semi-transparent envelope surrounding us from the beginning of consciousness to the end’ (CE II, 106). In ‘Kew Gardens’ Woolf does not document the physical scene, she immerses the reader in the atmosphere of the garden.1
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
