“A Haunted House” by Virginia Woolf was published in her first collection of short fiction, Monday or Tuesday (1921). It later appeared as the lead story of another collection of stories, A Haunted House and Other Short Stories (1944), after Woolf’s death. Here we present the text in full. 

First, here are a pair of analyses of this classic short story.

Interesting Literature:

“‘A Haunted House’ by Virginia Woolf both is and is not a ghost story. In less than two pages of prose, Woolf explores, summons, and subverts the conventions of the ghost story, offering a modernist take on the genre … In summary, the narrator describes the house where she and her partner live.

Whenever you wake in the house, you hear noises: a door shutting, and the sound of a ‘ghostly couple’ wandering from room to room in the house.” 

Sitting Bee:

“In ‘A Haunted House’ we have the themes of struggle, loss, commitment, connection, love, and acceptance … The story is narrated in the first person by an unnamed female narrator and after reading the story the reader realises that Woolf may be exploring the theme of struggle.

Both the deceased man and woman are searching for something (love) yet they cannot find what they are looking for at the beginning of the story.”

From the Foreword by Leonard Woolf 

Monday or Tuesday, the only book of short stories by Virginia Woolf which appeared in her lifetime, was published in 1921. It has been out of print for years.

All through her life, Virginia Woolf used at intervals to write short stories. Read More→