Virginia Woolf, one of the most important modernist writers of the 20th century, changed literature with her experimental approach to writing and plunging psychological insight. Woolf, known for her novels, essays, short stories and a handful of poems, often explored topics around identity, gender, time and memory. When her literary career took off in the early 1900s, she wrote in a style characterized by stream-of-consciousness prose, lyrical beauty and emotional depth. Her contributions to modernist literature include prominent novels like Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse. For readers seeking timeless and introspective works, Virginia Woolf’s literary creations remain essential reading material.
Top Books Written By Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf wrote nine novels alongside numerous essays, short stories and critical works. Her books are ranked here based on their literary value, cultural impact and reader acclaim. Woolf’s best-known novels include Mrs. Dalloway (1925) and To the Lighthouse (1927), but her lesser-known works, including Orlando (1928) and Jacob’s Room (1922), are also important for anyone exploring her oeuvre for the first time.
12. The Common Reader (1925, 1932)
This is arguably Woolf’s most popular collection. With over 25 selections, this two-book series combines essays on literature, art and culture. Here, Woolf uses accessible prose and analyzes authors like Jane Austen, George Eliot and Montaigne to offer candid detail and insights into her formed literary philosophy and why it is the way it is. Through these essays, Woolf not only critiques the works of great authors but also reflects on the evolution of literature itself.
Best For: Fans of Woolf’s collections.
Where to Buy: Barnes & Noble.
11. Monday or Tuesday (1921)
This collection of eight short stories broadly shows Woolf’s experimentation with writing and her talent for capturing the rhythm of everyday life. Highlights include A Haunted House and The Mark on the Wall, which acutely shows her modernistic style. These stories also project Woolf’s use of the stream-of-consciousness technique and her focus on the subtle, often overlooked details of ordinary experiences, recasting them into extraordinary meditations on existence and perception.
Best For: Fans of Woolf’s shorter works and experimental prose.
Where to Buy: Simon & Schuster.
10. Kew Gardens (1919)
One of Woolf’s most celebrated short stories, Kew Gardens, follows several characters aimlessly wandering through a botanic garden in London on a hot summer day in July. Woolf’s vivid depiction of the colors of the petals of the flowers as they float to the ground is both clever and memorable. Her introspective tone as she narrates the random movements of the visitors, comparing them to the irregular movements of butterflies, makes this piece engaging.
Best For: Readers interested in Virginia Woolf’s short stories.
Where to Buy: Kew Shop.
9. Between the Acts (1941)
Woolf’s final novel, published posthumously, happens in a single day in a small English village as all its residents prepare for a pageant, a traditional celebration of English history. The event, which takes place just before the Second World War, happens on the house’s grounds. Woolf’s descriptive use of narration as she guides readers through the performance and its interruptions to show how community, war and time passing is sheer literary genius.
Best For: Readers who appreciate Woolf’s reflective and experimental technique.
Where to Buy: HarperCollins Publishers.
8. Flush: A Biography (1933)
This whimsical biography of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s dog, Flush, is a genre hybrid of fiction and nonfiction that looks at Victorian society from the perspective of a cocker spaniel. Woolf’s lighthearted storytelling here employs freedom, privilege and the bond humans can have with their animals. Woolf’s depiction of Flush’s larger-than-life personality, his adoption by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and his adventures in London and Italy add an atmospheric feel to the story.
Best For: Fans of light, imaginative storytelling with social commentary.
Where to Buy: Barnes & Noble.
7. Three Guineas (1938)
In this book-length essay, Woolf explores the intersections of war, patriarchy and education in a series of responses to a letter from an anonymous man, a women’s college and an employment agency for women. In this piece, Woolf alternates between fiction and non-fiction, critiques systemic inequalities and advocates for pacifism. Beyond offering social commentary, Woolf’s penetrating look into the facets of war offers an honest analysis of that era.
Best For: Readers interested in feminist and anti-war literature.
Where to Buy: HarperCollins Publishers.
6. Jacob’s Room (1922)
Woolf’s first experimental novel, Jacob’s Room, tells the fragmented story of Jacob Flanders, a young man whose life is narrated to readers solely through the memories and perceptions of others. This contextual storytelling represented Woolf’s departure from traditional writing and introduced her distinctive narrative style, influenced primarily by external impressions. Readers might view Jacob’s character as vague and entirely influenced by the characters around him, adding mystique to Woolf’s storytelling.
Best For: Readers exploring Woolf’s early experimental works.
Where to Buy: Simon &Schuster.
5. The Waves (1931)
In this novel, Woolf cryptically integrates the internal monologues of six characters, Bernard, Susan, Rhoda, Neville, Jinny and Louis, as they struggle with the death of their friend, Percival. Each character, though unique, presents conforming thoughts about their grief that are cohesively tied together to give this novel a montage-like quality. Regarding lyrical quality, the novel conforms to Woolf’s style and blends in an abstract quality. This body of work is widely considered Woolf’s most ambitious work and blurs the lines between prose and poetry.
Best For: Fans of avant-garde literature.
Where to Buy: HarperCollins Publishers.
4. A Room of One’s Own (1929)
In this extended essay, Woolf argues for the importance of financial independence and private space for women to create art. Apart from the lyrical consciousness in her work, Woolf’s work also had a fierce advocacy element. Especially because Woolf frequently examined how historical inequalities have stifled women’s creativity. The essay is regarded as a feminist text that specifically caters to women writers within a field that men were known to dominate.
Best For: Readers seeking feminist literature and aspiring writers.
Where to Buy: HarperCollins Publishers.
3. Orlando: A Biography (1928)
Orlando is arguably Woolf’s most playful and satirical novel, which combines historical fiction and fantasy to chronicle the life of its titular character, who mysteriously changes sex from man to woman and then lives across centuries. Written as an homage to Woolf’s close friend, lover and aristocratic poet Vita Sackville-West, the book does justice to Sackville-West’s tumultuous family history. It brazenly explores topics around gender, identity and societal expectations, especially for its time. Orlando played an impactful role in securing Woolf’s legacy as a specialist in literary modernism.
Best For: Readers curious about gender fluidity and imaginative storytelling.
Where to Buy: Penguin Books.
2. To the Lighthouse (1927)
This semi-autobiographical novel focuses on the Ramsay family and their visits to a remote Scottish island between 1910 and 1920. Here, Woolf uses the fluidity of time, familial relationships and the tension between art and life to make this a prominent story in her repertoire. To the Lighthouse eschews traditional plot in favor of emotional depth and is considered one of Woolf’s most poetic works. The recurring motif of the lighthouse serves as a symbol of unattainable ideals and the quest for meaning that each of Woolf’s protagonists aspires to find, solidifying To the Lighthouse as a cornerstone of 20th-century literature.
Best For: Readers interested in plots that revolve around time, memory and modernist expression.
Where to Buy: HarperCollins Publishers.
1. Mrs. Dalloway (1925)
Mrs. Dalloway is a day-in-the-life story of Clarissa Dalloway, an upper-class woman in post-World War I London. Woolf uses her stream-of-consciousness storytelling to capture Clarissa’s thoughts as she prepares for an evening party in a way that makes readers reflect on identity and social class. The novel also juxtaposes Clarissa’s story with that of a shell-shocked war veteran, which gives readers insight into the societal fractures that defined that era.
Best For: Fans of introspective, character-driven novels.
Where to Buy: HarperCollins Publishers.
Bottom Line
Virginia Woolf’s works are gems of modernist literature. To date, no writer has been able to use important themes like identity, time and complicated human relationships to tell stories so efficiently. Woolf’s experimental and poetic approach to creating stories and bringing characters to life has secured her legacy as one of the most intellectually nimble and greatest writers of all time.