Month of October 2022: Spooky Classics

“A Haunted House and Other Short Stories” by Virginia Woolf (1944; 2021 Kindle Edition). Originally produced by Virginia’s husband, Leonard Woolf, after her death.

Includes 18 short stories:
- “A Haunted House” - p. 2-6
- “Monday or Tuesday” - p. 7-9
- “An Unwritten Novel” - p. 10-24
- “The String Quartet” - p. 25-30
- “Kew Gardens” - p. 31-39
- “The Mark on the Wall” - p. 40-49
- “The New Dress” - p. 50-59
- “The Shooting Party” - p. 60-69
- “Lappin and Lapinova” - p. 71-81
- “Solid Objects” - p. 82-89
- “The Lady in the Looking-Glass” - p. 90-97
- “The Duchess and the Jeweller” - p. 98-108
- “Moments of Being” - p. 109-118
- “The Man Who Loved His Kind” - p. 119-126
- “The Searchlight” - p. 127-134
- “The Legacy” - p. 135-145
- “Together and Apart” - p. 146-153
- “A Summing Up” - p. 154-157

Currently, I have only read “A Haunted House”, as this is spooky month.

But, this is the wrong kind of haunted house. I believe this is more of a love story. An old couple of ghosts meanders through the house they used to live in, and grew old together in, and are reminded of this and that. Kind of “poeticky” [new word]. I’m not sure I even understood it all.

It’s just not my cup of tea. ( )

I più 'Woolf' di tutti i racconti: I giardini di Kew e Il segno sul muro.

Sfiducia essa nutre per le opinioni e dichiarazioni altrui: "gli occhi altrui, le nostre prigioni; i loro pensieri, le nostre gabbie".
(pagina 18, Introduzione di Desideria Pasolini)

...i tetti di vetro della serra per le palme risplendevano come se un intiero mercato gremito di luccicanti ombrelli verdi si fosse aperto al sole;
(pagina 71)

Con quale prontezza i nostri pensieri brulicano su di un nuovo oggetto, sollevandolo per un piccolo tratto come le formiche che trasportano febbrilmente un filo di paglia e poi lo lasciano…!
(pagina 73)
( )

I found this story to be abstruse/enigmatic, and am hoping that all Virginia Woolf’s work is not like this.

There is a ghostly couple walking around the house looking for a buried treasure.

There is also a couple, presumably living, who hear them, and are sometimes woken by them.

The pulse of the house often beats “Safe, safe, safe”, whatever that means. Safe from what?

The woman died first, hundreds of years ago, and somehow, although she was dead, she sealed all the windows.

The ghostly couple now wander through the house and open all the windows.

At the end, they seem to find the treasure - “the light in the heart”:

Or at least, the narrator, who is one of the two living people, thinks they have, and asks them if they have.

But what is “the light in the heart”? Is it love, or something of the sort? ( )

A strange little ghost story. I never seem to know what I think of Woolf...but this one is almost sweet. ( )

This is a collection of 18 short stories, or impressions, over about 150 pages. Some of these have previously been published in a collection "Monday or Tuesday", others have been published separately in magazines, and six of them were previously unpublished. What they all have in common is Virginia Woolf's distinctive literary rambling of thought – either among her own thoughts or those of her characters – which in a way produces a stage of the mind, and a poetry of sorts from the internal dialogue and the day-to-day sense impressions that it receives. This brings out the psychological subtleties in how we respond to both social situations and to the natural world, which often works independently of any need for a plot.

The Haunted House of the title is little more than two pages, and not one of the best pieces. There is plenty of variety and quality here though yet: the one set in Kew Gardens, the one about the Mark on the Wall, Solid Objects, and Lappin and Lapinova all left stronger impressions on me and would bear re-reading.

This volume would be equally suited to someone who had not read any of Virgina Woolf's works before, or for the familiar reader. There is much to enjoy here for any reader of literature and this is therefore not difficult to recommend. ( )