The Waves is an astonishingly beautiful and poetic novel and is often regarded as Virginia Woolf's masterpiece.

The Waves conveys the full complexity and richness of human experience. Tracing the lives of a group of friends, The Waves follows their development from childhood to youth and middle age. While social events, individual achievements and disappointments form its narrative, the novel is most remarkable for the rich poetic language that expresses the inner life of its characters: their aspirations, their triumphs and regrets, their awareness of unity and isolation. Separately and together, they query the relationship of past to present, and the meaning of life itself.

In a 2015 poll conducted by BBC, The Waves was voted the 16th greatest British novel ever written.