let me say first that i have no objections to modernism and rather liked joyce's _Portrait_. woolf in the modern tradition, has some new ideas of breaking the traditional forms, in her case, of plot, and replacing it with a web of connected images to provide continuity. that's a lovely idea, virginia and i applaud you for your creativity, but this book had some of the most outrageously bad prose i have ever seen. the imagery is so incredibly forced i could hear the author grunting with strain. everyone i know who likes this book only does so because he or she was told by some professor that it's supposed to be good and can provide no evidence to confirm it. read joyce instead.