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Mrs. Dalloway
Summary
A special edition of the “moving, revolutionary” novel about one day in a woman’s life (Michael Cunningham)—with extensive notes from a renowned Woolf scholar.
When we meet her, Mrs. Clarissa Dalloway is preoccupied with the last-minute details of party preparation, though in her mind she is something much more than a perfect society hostess. As she readies her house, she is flooded with remembrances of faraway times. And, met with the realities of the present, Clarissa reexamines the choices that brought her there, hesitantly looking ahead to the unfamiliar work of growing old.
It is a work of art that still inspires today, leading author Michael Cunningham, for example, to write his bestseller The Hours. As Cunningham explains: “Mrs. Dalloway was the first novel to split the atom. If the novel before Mrs. Dalloway aspired to immensities of scope and scale, to heroic journeys across vast landscapes, with Mrs. Dalloway Virginia Woolf insisted that it could also locate the enormous within the everyday; that a life of errands and party-giving was every bit as viable a subject as any life lived anywhere; and that should any human act in any novel seem unimportant, it has merely been inadequately observed. The novel as an art form has not been the same since.”
This edition, annotated and introduced by Bonnie Scott, offers notes on the text as well as invaluable critical analysis, and suggestions for further reading.
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Reviews
A literary feast that boggles the mind and treats all of your senses. Captivating, Enthralling, and very intelligent. A masterpiece of masterpieces... and definitely time for a re-read!!! I can't wait.
I found this book a bit boring. On the other hand, in places the language was brilliant, and I believe I will add some quotes from this book to my collection.
I haven't read Joyce's 'Ulysses' but I get the feeling that it spoiled a lot of modern literature for me; maybe it was a necessary evil to get us where we are today, but it also led to the creation of a lot of difficult, unenjoyable works, such as 'Mrs Dalloway'.No, I didn't enjoy this novel, though I could see why people would think it a classic of the modernist years. The character of Septimus Smith was compelling, with his struggle against madness and war trauma; if he had been the main character I would have made more of the book. It has been left to the likes of Pat Barker to flesh out his tale. Mrs Dalloway herself is hardly of any interest, and I am rather glad that so much else went on in this book.
This is a book that gets better every time I read it. I think it is partly due to the ability to follow the streams of consciousness more carefully and closely as you become more familiar with the plot (I had a similar experience with Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury). But this novel also has many layer of meaning and connections to be made by the reader that I'm sure Virginia gave us as part of her marvelous creation. It is a wonderful paean to London.
The Folio Society edition is a beautifully presented book (one of the best covers of any Folio Society book) with delightful illustrations. The text consists of several thousand superbly crafted paragraphs that circle around numerous perspectives of one day in 1923 and lead - well - absolutely nowhere!
Poor Mrs. Dalloway, lucky Mrs. Dalloway, silly and ditsy or of sharp perception and many emotions? It is for the reader to decide and Woolf offered a generous base for any further discussions and musings. Such is the case with all the other characters in this short work which is literally full to the brim. As always, it is important to put it into perspective and the context of the times to realise how modern and how very different it is in comparison to other literary work from the same period. The style did not really appeal until the second half, and now I want to re-read it, and I never do that. This time I will. While reading it, I often had to think of Proust's Swann's Way, because of the similar voice (cannot say what exactly, but I was reminded of it all the time), continuous referring to the past, the same observant criticism of the characters and the ephemeral quality of writing which was dealing with complex things and life's many questions.
Just a few thoughts on one of my all-time favourite novels that I re-read for my book club meeting today. Ever since I saw the film "The Hours" I just can't get Meryl Streep out of my head as the perfect Mrs Dalloway, even though in the film she was Clarissa Vaughn a well to-do American Woman based in modern New York. It is because Streep has that amazing facility to suggest that an awful lot more is going on in her head than would appear to be from the actions she is performing, like when she is on her way to buy some flowers.One of the stars of Woolf's Mrs Dalloway is London itself, especially for me because I used to work in the Westminster district where Clarissa Dalloway set out to buy those flowers and I could so easily imagine the sights and sounds as she walked through St James' Park. The passage in the novel where Woolf flits inside the heads of her characters as they pass unknowingly by in the Park is a superb example of the stream of conscious technique. This is one of my all-time favourite sequences and it was a joy to read it again.I have been reading H G Wells early novels and stories recently, written at the turn of the century and the difference in writing styles between them and Woolf's novel written in the 1920's is immense. Books that seem worlds apart.Mrs Dalloway is a short novel it could almost be a novella and yet it can be a tricky read, because it is not always clear where or in whose head the story is taking place, however I think there is enough here to delight even the first time reader, not familiar with the modernist style (of which Woolf was one of the leading exponents). If ever a novel deserved five stars it is this one, I'm already looking forward to my next re-read.
The way certain words can be put together to so powerfully convey a certain emotion or action is one of the magical things about reading for me, and this book exquisitely captures that. I loved this book. I think if I had read it when I was a teenager I would have hated it, because I would not have been able to follow the stream-of-consciousness style and the beauty of the words would have been lost on me. However, reading it as an adult I took sheer pleasure in the way Woolf describes the most every day occurrences and emotions. This is not a book to be rushed, nor is it (really) a plot-driven book. It focuses on the way we as human beings move through time; how we spend our days, the way we think, how things we experience motivate us to think a certain way or to do a certain thing. Beautiful!
The entire story takes place over a single day, beginning with Mrs. Dalloway (Clarissa) planning for a society party she is throwing that evening, because that's what she does and that's what she's good at. Her thoughts about nearly everything under the sun are shared with us through some very long and complicated sentences; then one thought leads to another; then her old love Peter stops by for a visit, leading to a perfect segue into his thoughts and meanderings about life, love, and regrets; then he goes out for a stroll and there’s someone else, such as Septimus and his wife (who Clarissa also ran into on her earlier jaunt), and Septimus is suffering from post traumatic stress disorder from serving in the first World War and seeing his friend blown to bits, with no feelings at this juncture about anything/anyone, other than a desire to kill himself, much to the distress of his immigrant wife, who wants nothing more than to have a baby. The entire book is like this review, just a stream of thoughts and characterizations, making me wish Woolf would stop obsessing what time it is and get back to what Clarissa is up to, and will we ever get to this exalted party? I did enjoy the storyline buried deep down in there somewhere, if only the sentences weren’t quite so... so like they are! Great commentary on society and the after effects of war.
A fantastic novel, but to say I enjoyed it might not be exactly the right word as it's not an easy read. It still feels experimental, even nearly 100 years after it was first published, with its stream-of-consciousness style deftly flitting from the mind of one person to the next. All of the characters, however brief a glimpse you get into their heads, feel like complete, real people.
I have yet to wade into too terribly much of Joyce's brand of steam of consciousness, but so far find Woolf's angles more accessible. Mrs. Dalloway's day of interior monologue makes her one of the most luminous characters in fiction.
I only read this book when I got partway through Michael Cunningham's "The Hours" and realized I had to first read "Mrs. Dalloway" to appreciate "The Hours." I'm so glad I stopped to read this book because it is wonderful in its own right.
The first time I read this book it fell flat. Several years later I read The Hours, which is based on Mrs Dalloway, and thought it was wonderful, which made me think I should re-read the original someday. And this time I appreciated it so much more; in fact, I loved it. From the opening sentence, when Clarissa Dalloway leaves her house to buy flowers for a party she is hosting that evening, I was immediately immersed in the atmosphere of a beautiful London morning. Woolf moves seamlessly from Clarissa to other characters and other places, using events like a passing car to get the reader to “look” in another direction and observe other vignettes in the London scene. This flow continues throughout the novel, as Clarissa prepares for the party and others go about their days. Some characters will attend the party; others have more symbolic dramatic roles. By the end of the party, the characters have all been woven together into a tight and often moving narrative flow.
A classic example of the stream of consciousness style of writing. We learn more through the silences, the sections when Dalloway thinks that surely she should be happy...so why isn't she? That tell us more than what is spoken directly. Modern society and the demands on 'successful' women is the focus of this piece, with its frivolities hiding the ache resting beneath. A real work of art. Not my type of content really, but the poetic nature of the prose carried me along and made it wonderful to read in its own way.
A modernist classic, perfect use of the steam-of-consciousness narrative technique and a beautiful story overall. A bit difficult to read but once you get use to the style it's much easier.
Mrs. Dalloway relates the day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, an English high-society matron during post-World War I. The novel deftly weaves together snippets of several characters in a stream of consciousness style as Mrs. Dalloway prepares for a party she is hosting that evening. Some of the characters who flit in and out include Clarissa's old flame Peter Walsh. Peter was jilted by Clarissa in their youth. He had moved to India to pursue a career and several failed love affairs and seems out of step with his peers. Septimus Smith is a WW I veteran suffering from shell shock, who is cared for by his Italian wife Rezia. Elizabeth is Clarissa's 17 year old daughter, who seems destined to follow her mother's footsteps, despite not being all that interested in society. Sally Seton is an old friend of Clarissa's who she may have had a lesbian affair with in their youth.Despite several of the characters coming from vastly different backgrounds and some of them never even meeting Mrs. Dalloway, the author does a very good job of knitting these differing points of view together in a coherent and intelligent way.
2010, Naxos Audiobooks, Read by Juliet StevensonI read Night and Day several months ago, quite enjoyed it, and wanted to follow it with another of Woolf’s novels. I chose Mrs. Dalloway because it is the best known and most widely acclaimed. Juliet Stevenson, narrator of this Naxos Audiobook edition, is fabulous – an exquisite reader.Mrs. Dalloway is the story of a day in June 1923, as lived by Clarissa Dalloway and several other London citizens. The eponymous protagonist is a wealthy, middle-aged socialite who is planning an evening party. Running parallel to Clarissa’s story is the story of Septimus Warren Smith, a shell-shocked veteran of WWI; he is withdrawn, delusional, possibly on the brink of madness. The two stories intersect at the conclusion of the novel. Themes in Mrs. Dalloway include existentialism, madness, loneliness, and fear of death.The entirely of the novel is written in stream of consciousness, which for me is both its strength and its atrophy. Woolf’s prose is beautiful, and I can appreciate her genius in fusing third person omniscient point of view with first person interior monologue; but I do not enjoy this style of writing. Fleeting transitions between characters make the prose difficult to follow, and there are no breaks in the writing, chapter or otherwise. The audiobook consisted of one track of over seven hours. In addition, the novel has no discernible plot; it explores its various themes through the musings and meanderings of characters’ thoughts. And, truthfully, I did not find any of the characters particularly likeable. Septimus Warren Smith promises to be at least relatable, but even he is somehow blank.I much preferred Night and Day to this later novel; the characters were decidedly more likeable and relatable, and the plot of the novel had some structure. I can appreciate Mrs. Dalloway but will not reread. I also do not widely recommend the novel, but I do recommend it to those who read strictly to observe literary form and genre.
I was disappointed with this book for some reason. Perhaps my expectations were too high but I just couldn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. It was pleasant enough to finish but it didn't make my must-read-again list.
Virginia Woolf, like lobster - understandably praised, but not to my taste. I understand it was a fundamental rethinking of the novel, and her writing can be lovely, but it is a bunch of characters in whom I am just not interested. On the plus side, it's easily readable.
Mrs. Dalloway is one of those novels that I've been meaning to read for ages but would usually get passed over in favor of something less intimidating. I dipped in and out of it for the better part of a month and a half, and finally steeled myself to finish off the last sixty pages one evening towards the end of last week. And then when I was done, I thought, 'that's it?'The entirety of Mrs. Dalloway takes place during the course of one day, with the story taking place as the reader follows the various characters around London. The story flows from one character to another as they interact -- and I use the word 'interact' loosely here, maybe 'encounter' is better for some of them -- with each other, culminating with Clarissa Dalloway's party at the end of the evening, where everything all kind of ties together.I wasn't an English major, so I can't begin to understand the complexities and subtleties that are most likely hiding in this work. I've never read Ulysses by James Joyce, either, a novel to which Mrs. Dalloway is (apparently) often paralleled, so there goes more that I might be missing. While I did enjoy reading about each of the characters and getting little glimpses of what makes them tick as they communicate with each other, this is, at times, a very tedious book.At some point in the future, I'll probably give it another try in hopes of getting more from it, and I also intend to give To the Lighthouse a go. But I can't say that Mrs. Dalloway will ever make my list of favorites.
Oh my was I disappointed?!
This one is better than 'to the lighthouse', that's for sure. But, it was dull, boring, uninteresting, confusing. I skimmed through it and understood the story, some ideas were good, some descriptions were good, she can write, but she's not my cup of tea. This didn't irritate me as much as 'to the lighthouse' , but it was very .. what's the word? ... meh! Very meh! I don't know why everyone like it so much, I frankly don't understand the hype around Woolf, her writing is incoherent. She is the only one who really knows about her characters, they keep appearing out of nowhere, many narrators, lots of names, lost of things she mentions hastily, things we do not know, I dare say she is a snobbish egocentric writer who doesn't feel like giving the reader a chance to understand her mind, or her plot. lots of missing information, cold writing style, and it isn't cool or smart, it's just as if she doesn't want to share with the reader, it only makes perfect sense to her, and we gotta put the pieces together while she's turning her back to us... Camus was very cold in 'the stranger' , but he wasn't deluding or confusing the reader. This is my piece of mind, anyways, this writer is overrated, I believe! Many contemporary writers have more respect for their readers' intellect than she did.
This one is better than 'to the lighthouse', that's for sure. But, it was dull, boring, uninteresting, confusing. I skimmed through it and understood the story, some ideas were good, some descriptions were good, she can write, but she's not my cup of tea. This didn't irritate me as much as 'to the lighthouse' , but it was very .. what's the word? ... meh! Very meh! I don't know why everyone like it so much, I frankly don't understand the hype around Woolf, her writing is incoherent. She is the only one who really knows about her characters, they keep appearing out of nowhere, many narrators, lots of names, lost of things she mentions hastily, things we do not know, I dare say she is a snobbish egocentric writer who doesn't feel like giving the reader a chance to understand her mind, or her plot. lots of missing information, cold writing style, and it isn't cool or smart, it's just as if she doesn't want to share with the reader, it only makes perfect sense to her, and we gotta put the pieces together while she's turning her back to us... Camus was very cold in 'the stranger' , but he wasn't deluding or confusing the reader. This is my piece of mind, anyways, this writer is overrated, I believe! Many contemporary writers have more respect for their readers' intellect than she did.
All the action within this novel takes place during one day and evening as Mrs Clarissa Dalloway, an upper class woman, is first preparing for, then throws a party in the evening. While still at home before she sets out to run her errands, she is visited by Peter Walsh, a man she's known since she was a young girl and who once asked her to marry him. For the whole of the novel, we wander from one stream of thoughts to another, with Clarissa's mind wandering from the moment's happenings and backwards into the past, then without preamble we are following Peter's thoughts, then Clarissa's husband and so on, with the author's focus wandering between every person encountered in the novel. Clarissa thinks about the life choices she has made. Peter has just come back from India and is seeking a divorce from his wife now that he has fallen in love with a much younger married woman. Clarissa's husband has bought her flowers and intends to tell her he loves her, something he presumably hasn't said in a very long time. There is Doris Kilman, the teacher of Clarissa's daughter Elizabeth, who, while she venerates the young girl to a degree that borders on desire (or as much desire as a religious fanatic will make allowances for), despises her mother Clarissa for all she stands for as a society woman living a life of ease and luxury. We meet Septimus Warren Smith, sitting in the park with his wife; he is a war veteran suffering from a very bad case of shell-shock who is being treated for suicidal depression. His wife is concerned because he talks to himself and to his deceased army friend Evans, who may have been much more than just a buddy, and together they are waiting to meet a psychiatrist who will suggest a course of treatment for the young man. I had a couple of false stars with this book over the years, never making it past the first couple of pages, and must say one needs to be in the right frame of mind to fully appreciate this short, yet very profound novel. Having just finished reading A Room of One's Own I found myself in the right mood for more of Woolf's deep reflections on life and how we are affected by circumstances and the people we are surrounded by, whether by choice or happenstance. Once one gets accustomed to the flow of words, which doesn't follow a traditional narrative style with chapters and commentary, but pours forth in an organic way meant to mimic a real-life experience, one is transported by the portraits Woolf paints of these people, whom we get to know from the inside out, as opposed to the other way round. Because of this, there is a timeless quality to this novel, even though the events it alludes to are very much fixed in the London of the 1920s.
Never. Again.
This is the most boring book I have ever read. It is truly a book about nothing. Let's follow some random well-to-do white people around. Ooooo sooooo exciting! So exciting that sentences and phrases must be repeated. (one must be scientific above all, scientific) You know, just in case my mind was blown away the first time I read them and I need to be reminded of the sentence I just finished.
'I had meant to have dancing,' said Clarissa blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah 'What a pity!' she said. 'I had hoped to have dancing.'
or this...brace yourself for the magic...
'And there's Peter Walsh!' said Lady Bruton blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah 'There's Peter Walsh!' she said,...
Just...wow. Never. Again.
This is the most boring book I have ever read. It is truly a book about nothing. Let's follow some random well-to-do white people around. Ooooo sooooo exciting! So exciting that sentences and phrases must be repeated. (one must be scientific above all, scientific) You know, just in case my mind was blown away the first time I read them and I need to be reminded of the sentence I just finished.
'I had meant to have dancing,' said Clarissa blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah 'What a pity!' she said. 'I had hoped to have dancing.'
or this...brace yourself for the magic...
'And there's Peter Walsh!' said Lady Bruton blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah 'There's Peter Walsh!' she said,...
Just...wow. Never. Again.
In her inimitable writing style, Woolf created a novel that beautifully captures the complicated interactions between our mental terrain and the external world always pressing on us. The story begins with Mrs. Dalloway planning for her party that evening, and deciding that she needs to buy the flowers herself. As she walks to the shop, her observations of her surroundings trigger memories and emotions, thoughts that jump from past to present to future in no chronological order, and images that are vague and associative or concrete and embodied stories. Woolf has such mastery in the way she captures a mind. The subconscious and the conscious twining together, the way our thoughts can hop from coherent and functional concentration to light reverie in seconds. How our mind can travel down a chain of thoughts, whilst we are almost unaware of the process, and arrive at a new topic that seems completely unrelated, but actually had a logical progression. I am not actually straying from a plot synopsis, because the majority of the book actually takes place within these interior dimensions. As Mrs. Dalloway prepares for her evening party, we frequently see her thoughts, rather than action or dialogue. Just as the mind nimbly sweeps from one idea to the next, so does the omniscient narrator skillfully move from perspective to perspective. While Clarissa is preparing her party, starting with the flowers and returning home to mend her dress for the night, her old lover Peter Walsh is just returning to England. One of his first stops is at Clarissa's house; he surprises her while she is in the middle of her sewing, and while she clutches her scissors, and he plays with his pocket knife, they have a friendly conversation that contains much more depth in the memories and undercurrents than in what is actually said. (I read a review that pointed out the importance of being armed in this book, having weapons, as this scene eloquently illustrates.) During this interlude, the narrative moves smoothly from Clarissa's mind to Peter's and back again, but eventually leaves when Peter does, and follows him as he walks from Clarissa's house to his hotel. Again, the reader enjoys a long sequence where the outside world is just a vehicle to evoke the more interesting inner thoughts and permutations. Actually, the correlation of physically walking through London and mentally wandering through memories is a trope in the story; we follow Clarissa, Peter, Septimus and Rezia - even Richard and Elizabeth Dalloway for short periods of time - and these journeys occupy the majority of the book. While the characters roam, the reader is invited to occupy their most private mental musings.A narrative with so little action, and so much introspection, may sound like a dull read, but it absolutely is not. I have never read an author who was able to portray in words, in a story, the inexplicable workings of our minds; no, our souls. Woolf's language is gorgeous; the imagery is powerful, moving, strong. She creates extended metaphors that make my writer's heart quiver with delighted admiration. Her grasp of beautiful language rivets the attention. Most writers need action to drive the story forward, but in this case, the fascination is focused inward, and is so compelling that only a minimal plot is needed to contain the characterization that takes place on a grand scale. We learn so much more about the people in this story than in novels of comparable length. They feel like real people, This is a complicated novel.
I enjoyed this. Woolf's usual rather chaotic style, but pretty readable. A woman, her life and loves. She's not perfect or noble, perhaps even somewhat ordinary; yet she's somehow very special also.
This book was like the Log Ride at Astroworld...once you climb in, you can't stop. Virginia Woolf seems to try to be as honest and true as she can, even when what she writes is horribly painful.
It's okay. Worth reading. Just to say you've read it.
What a lovely read. . . if you're nervous to pick it up because it's a classic, don't be. ;) Reading this book is like walking down the street and being able to see the thought bubbles above everyone's heads as you pass by. You choose a few people that have the most interesting thoughts, and follow them around for awhile, observing their day and peering into their mind, too. Very readable, very enjoyable.
I keep feeling as though I'm doing something wrong with this. Intellectually, I recognize that there is something beautiful and emotive and melancholy about all this, no doubt. But the whole emotional connection isn't coming across too well. Great passages and recollections. But I keep wanting to fall asleep while reading this. I can't explain why. Maybe I'm not ready. I'll try again later.
woman plans to kill herself or have a dinner party