Prelude (short story)

It was first published by the Hogarth Press in July 1918, after Virginia Woolf encouraged her to finish the story.

[2] The story was a compressed and subtler version of a longer work The Aloe,[3] which was later published posthumously in full.

It opens in medias res, and it is gradually developed that the Burnell family is moving out of their house.

On the road the storeman refers to a lighthouse on Quarantine Island, thus suggesting that the story is set in Wellington.

The next day, Linda wakes up to a sunny weather and a husband boasting about his physique - she ridicules him slightly.

Stanley comes back delighted from work with cherries, oysters and a pineapple, willing to see his wife; Linda seems less happy; Aunt Beryl is 'restless'.

In the kitchen, Alice is reading a book on dreams; Aunt Beryl comes in and bosses her round, then feels better and walks out.

Aunt Beryl writes a letter to her friend Nan, saying she is bored with living in the countryside, then thinks to herself how despicably false and unhappy with herself she is, until Kezia calls for her to come to dinner.