Woolf's second novel paints a picture of the London intelligentsia before World War I. It portrays the author's sister Vanessa in the character of Katherine Hilbery, the gifted daughter of a distinguished literary family who is trapped in a stifling environment and unable to express herself.

Woolf's second novel paints a picture of the London intelligentsia before World War I. It portrays the author's sister Vanessa in the character of Katherine Hilbery, the gifted daughter of a distinguished literary family who is trapped in a stifling environment and unable to express herself.