Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf


My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Virginia Woolf's stream-of-consciousness masterpiece follows Clarissa Dalloway through the course of a day as she prepares to host a party in the evening. The beautiful June day brings back memories from her happy schoolgirl years. She wonders about her choice of husband—was she wrong to have married reliable Richard Dalloway, refusing the exciting Peter Walsh, and what was the place of her schoolgirl love? The story travels back and forth in time, densely weaving the texture of an intelligent, upper class woman's life lived within the strictures of post-WW I England.


Only Virginia Woolf can take an ordinary day and make a book out of it. "Mrs. Dalloway" is the story of a day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway as she prepares for a party she is giving that evening. That sounds so simple, but the book is anything but simple. Virginia weaves in and out of the characters' heads with such wonderful descriptions, then seques from one character to another before you even realize it. After I finished the book, I read the Reading Guide questions. How did I miss all that? I was so enthralled by the language that I totally missed the clock striking the hours and the variety of women she used as opposed to the lack of comparable men figures. I mean I realized these things after I read the questions, but I guess I wasn't reading "like an English professor". Anyway, Virigina Woolf is amazing. She was so talented and her descriptions are incomparable with anyone else. She is my favorite classic author. I love Virigina Woolf!!!




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