“The voice had an extraordinary sadness. Pure from all body, pure from all passion, going out into the world, solitary, unanswered, breaking against rocks—so it sounded.”

English writer, 20th-century modernist author

Virginia Woolf was an English writer and a major modernist author of the 20th century. She is especially known for helping to pioneer stream of consciousness narration in fiction. Her work helped shape modern literature through its formal experimentation and attention to inner thought. She is remembered above all for the narrative technique she helped develop, which became influential in later writing.