Jacob's Room

A short novel in itself, Jacob's Room is a kind of surreal-modernist account of a young man's growing experience from the perspective of women in his life. It is very strange and (I believe) is an elegy or metaphor for madness and repressed anxiety. It is (again, I believe) Woolf's best work next to Mrs Dalloway and has really quite the potential to be a best-seller today. I just wished more people read it. While it would seem a bit ambiguous and mundane, taking a closer look at this classic modernist novel tells the reader that something - we don't know what - but something is clearly wrong with Jacob. 

I found this book whilst I was 16 years old and it was the summer after my GCSEs. I went browsing in a bookshop and couldn't find Mrs Dalloway in paperback. I knew it was on a PDF - but I wanted the book (not to study, just to read). I'd realised by then that I'd never read anything by Virginia Woolf - so I picked up the first one I saw with her name on it. It was Jacob's Room. Only after purchasing this and a week later, did I find Mrs Dalloway at all. But, by then my mind was set on the one I had just read and exactly how deep it was. 

Characters:

My favourite character was Florinda. This was because her narrative perspective seemed a little jolted compared to Clara's. Florinda only has an affair with Jacob - but there are clear juxtapositions drawn between affairs and true love. This, where Florinda is concerned, takes shape in her speech as she seems rather distant and emotionally detached from Jacob for the most part of her narrative. 

Themes: 

My favourite theme (I know, it actually counts as a motif) is the elegy in emptiness and depression. The depressing tone of the novel is one thing - but to make constant references to madness, emptiness and emotional detachment is another. The whole premise of the novel gives it a very elegiac feeling with this nature of constant dragging the character through emotionless encounters - like his affair with Florinda (which seems significantly emptier than his love for Clara).

Storyline:

A great skill of Woolf's is that she does not need to bombard the storyline with meaningless events to be able to tell a good elegy. Jacob pretty much stays where he is familiar until the end of the book when he visits Italy and Greece - his lack of movement is more important than the movement at the end of the story as it shows his familiarity in madness and depression. A dystopian London view makes it clear that Jacob is probably the greatest victim of his own emotions. It is beautifully written and for a novel that is predominately about the loss of identity - it is very poetic and insightful, maybe even autobiographical. 

Verdict:

I give this book 9.

100% for characters: Florinda and Jacob's relationship is the only time the reader gets to see the meaning in his relations with Clara. 

100% for themes: Elegy, madness, emptiness and depression are things that Woolf is well-known for in the modernist era. 

100% for storyline: A beautifully poetic piece of prose, the weirdness is juxtaposed by its own beauty.