Virginia Woolf Introduction, notes and activities by Brian Hodgkiss Virginia Woolf’s first truly modernist novel is a portrait of post-Edwardian England: hopeful, yet uncertain after the trauma of World War One. Written as a flow of thoughts, memories and feelings, this day-in-the-life of a fashionable society hostess finally broke free from the form of the traditional English novel and established Woolf as a true writer of genius. Sales restricted to certain countries.