The String Quartet

“Sir, I would trust you with my heart. Moreover, we have left our bodies in the banqueting hall. Those on the turf are the shadows of our souls.” Our narrator is attending a classical music concert given by a string quartet, and while seated there, she catches snippets of conversations around her, and reflects upon the different responses listening to music can inspire. Writing about music is difficult, but Virginia Woolf manages with poetic language and impressionistic images that awake with the reader exactly the music she's trying to convey. 'The String Quartet' was published in her short-story collection 'Monday or Tuesday' in 1921.