The Mark on the Wall

"The Mark on the Wall" is the first published short story by Virginia Woolf. ^[1] It was published in 1917 as part of the first collection of short stories written by Virginia Woolf and her husband, Leonard Woolf, called Two Stories. ^[2] It was later published in New York in 1921 as part of another collection entitled Monday or Tuesday .

Summary

"The Mark on the Wall" is written in the first person, as a "stream of consciousness" monologue. ^[3] The narrator notices a mark on the wall, and muses on the workings of the mind. ^[4] Themes of religion, self-reflection, ^[5] nature, and uncertainty are explored. The narrator reminisces about the development of thought patterns, beginning in childhood. ^[6]

Reception

Woolf's style in "The Mark on the Wall" has been frequently analyzed by literary writers; the story is used as an example of introspective writing. ^{[3] [4] [6]}

The story acted as the foundation for the music theatre "The Mark on the Wall“ by Stepha Schweiger, which was premiered in 2017 at opera festival Tête à Tête at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. ^[7]

Publication

"The Mark on the Wall" has been included in a number of anthologies.

• Woolf, Virginia. "A Mark on the Wall." The Norton Anthology of English Literature.Vol. F. Ed. 8th ed. Ed.Stephen Jahan Ramazani; Greenblatt; M. H. Abrahms; Jon Stallworthy. New York: W. W. Norton, 2005.
• Woolf, Virginia. "A Mark on the Wall." Haunted House and other stories. Hogarth Press, London, 1944. ^[5]
• Woolf, Virginia. (28 March 2014). Monday or Tuesday: Eight Stories. Start Classics. pp. 39–. ISBN   978-1-60977-494-3.
• Woolf, Virginia. "The Mark on the Wall." The Wordsworth Collection of Classic Short Stories. Wordsworth editions, 2007. pp. 1334-.

References

1. Douglas Mao; Rebecca L. Walkowitz (1 July 2010). Bad Modernisms. Duke University Press. pp. 124–. ISBN   0-8223-8782-4.
2. Jane Goldman (14 September 2006). The Cambridge Introduction to Virginia Woolf. Cambridge University Press. pp. 88–. ISBN   978-1-139-45788-0.
3. Ralph Freedman (January 1980). Virginia Woolf: Revaluation and Continuity, a Collection of Essays. University of California Press. pp.  53–. ISBN   978-0-520-03980-3.
4. Susan Sellers (18 February 2010). The Cambridge Companion to Virginia Woolf. Cambridge University Press. pp. 42–. ISBN   978-0-521-89694-8.
5. Dave Welsh (2010). Underground Writing: The London Tube from George Gissing to Virginia Woolf. Liverpool University Press. pp. 180–. ISBN   978-1-84631-223-6.
6. Jennifer Margaret Fraser (1 January 2011). Be a Good Soldier: Children's Grief in English Modernist Novels. University of Toronto Press. pp. 157–. ISBN   978-1-4426-4313-0.
7. "The Mark On The Wall". Tête à Tête. 2017. Retrieved 21 June 2024.

External links

• Mark on the Wall, The public domain audiobook at LibriVox