Woolf described this work on the title-page of the first draft as "the life of anybody". "The Waves" (1931) traces the lives and interactions of seven friends in an exploratory and sensuous narrative. It was conceived, brooded on, and written during a highly political phase in Woolf's career, when she was engaged in speaking on issues of gender and of class. This was also the period when her love affair with Vita Sackville-West was at its most intense.