Monday or Tuesday

By: Virginia Woolf

Narrated by: Elizabeth Klett

Length: 2 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

Monday or Tuesday is a captivating introduction to Virginia Woolf, one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. These eight tales by the author of Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse reveal her early experiments in the art of fiction. The stories convey tantalizing glimpses of uncommon yet everyday characters: a ghostly couple reliving their marriage in a haunted house, the members of a feminist society trying to figure out their purpose in life, an aspiring novelist writing the life of a stranger she meets on a train, and the various passersby in London's Kew Gardens on a July day.

With wit, insight, and beautiful prose, Woolf captures the strange and wonderful movements of "an ordinary mind on an ordinary day".

Public Domain (P)2015 Elizabeth Klett

Clarity and abstraction

Elizabeth Klett presents a beautiful rendering of Virginia Woolf's collection of short stories. The stories themselves are curious and occasionally abstract as Woolf brings to light the difficulties and paradoxes of the lives of women in early 20th century society.

Klett's reading is clear and expressive, but not overdramatic as her voice is able to capture the subtleties and ironies of Woolf's often challenging writing. She renders Woolf's abstract prose accessible to the average listener and captures the sheer beauty of Woolf's writing.

Monday or Tuesday

Any additional comments?

Elizabeth Klett does a wonderful job reading Virginia Woolfs short stories.The thoughts and ideas written by the lady are a first view of a modern woman.She is a woman who has a a witty personality,yet is a deep thinker.A wonderful read.
"I was provided this audiobook at no charge by the author in exchange for an unbiased review via AudiobookBlast dot com."

Monday or Tuesday review.

What made the experience of listening to Monday or Tuesday the most enjoyable?

The authors writing. Really remarkable.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Monday or Tuesday?

Given these are short stories, there are many. So the introduction of the characters in Blue and Green.

Which scene was your favorite?

The same as above.

Any additional comments?

A fantastic collection of short stories.

A Society stands out amongst experimental Woolf

Elizabeth Klett’s narration is very well suited to reading Woolf. She has a particularly clear style while her accent and her performance make the book a pleasure to listen to.

This collection contains short works of descriptive prose as well as short stories. It is supposed to contain eight works, however A Haunted House is missing from the version I downloaded from Audible, while Blue and Green is included twice. It’s disappointing as I’d bet Klett recorded A Haunted House and the error has been introduced in post production. Otherwise the production quality is excellent.

The standout piece from this collection is the short story A Society. This work alone is worth purchasing the collection for - it’s quite a giggle and has the depth and humour you’d expect. A quote from the first minute gives an idea of the humour:

“After a time, so far as I can remember, we drew round the fire and began, as usual, to praise men.”

This is a story of a society in which women are brought up to breed and men are brought up to write (and paint and other artistic and scientific endeavours). When the women of the society question whether the men are keeping up their end of the bargain they embark on a very thorough and utterly delightful investigation.

The rest of the collection is a mix of experiments with prose and observation and gives an interesting insight into the development of Woolf’s writing.

As a whole the collection feels like the juvenilia of Virginia Woolf. It was published prior to her best known novels and some of the pieces give the impression of experimental writing or writing practice. There are definite similarities to her later works to be found here, and it is worthwhile reading for dedicated fans of Virginia Woolf who want to complete their collection or to observe how her writing developed over time.

I received this title free in exchange for an unbiased review.

Not a bad introduction to Virginia Woolf.

Would you consider the audio edition of Monday or Tuesday to be better than the print version?

This is a tough question because, as with a lot of Modern fiction, the printed word counts for a lot. That said, Klett does her best to bring the text to life. I think this may be a candidate for having the text as a companion while listening. The thread of the narrative is a little hard to follow.

Who was your favorite character and why?

It's not that this book doesn't really have characters but, well, it doesn't exactly have characters. At least, not as the question means.

What does Elizabeth Klett bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I'm glad that she lets subtelties be subtleties and doesn't bang anybody over the head with some of the turns of phrase contained herein even when she's reading these passages that sound very much like what you get when you keep pressing the middle button on your predictive text app.

Also, in all honestly, I don't think I would have experienced the end of the collection if it hadn't been an audiobook which is a good thing as the last story is probably the best. Or, at least, my favorite.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

It's short enough that it only took two but I don't think this is best absorbed all at once; I think it's best to get into the right state of mind and let the words float on in. Harold Child, in a review of the book quotes Walter Pater in that prose may "aspire to the condition of music" ("although it cannot reach it") which I think is an apt enough analogy.

There are quite a few elegant turns of phrase in here and I think anybody with an interest in the genre would get something out of it. If this style isn't your cup of tea then you might try working back in here catalog to the more straight-forward stuff. If you do like it move forward.

Any additional comments?

Remember that this book is in the public domain and thus a copy can easily be found online and it may help follow the thread of some of these sentences by reading along. Or you may wish to listen twice.

To save you the trouble of opening the wikipedia page yourself here's the bon mot it has about the title, which is quite nice:

"In her 1919 work Modern Fiction, Virginia Woolf explains her new approach to writing :

"Examine for a moment an ordinary mind on an ordinary day. The mind receives a myriad impressions—trivial, fantastic, evanescent, or engraved with the sharpness of steel. From all sides they come, an incessant shower of innumerable atoms; and as they fall, as they shape themselves into the life of Monday or Tuesday

"This last phrase "the life of Monday or Tuesday", is what Woolf believed to be at the core of fiction; and from it came the title of this, her first short story collection, and the only selection she published herself."

Good luck!