The Waves is a 1931 novel by Virginia Woolf and is considered to be her most experimental work. The book consists of soliloquies spoken by six characters Bernard Susan Rhoda Neville Jinny and Louis. Also important is Percival the seventh character though readers never hear him speak in his own voice. The soliloquies that span the characters' lives are broken up by nine brief third-person interludes detailing a coastal scene at varying stages in a day from sunrise to sunset.

As the six characters or "voices" speak Woolf explores concepts of individuality self and community. Each character is distinct yet together they compose a gestalt about a silent central consciousness.