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Description edit
Heralded as Virginia Woolf's greatest novel, this is a vivid portrait of a single day in a woman's life. When we meet her, Mrs. Clarissa Dalloway is preoccupied with the last-minute details of party preparation while in her mind she is something much more than a perfect society hostess. As she... read more
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit
Characters/People edit
- Clarissa Dalloway: Protagonist, socialite and housewife
- Richard Dalloway: Clarissa Dalloway's husband and politican
- Peter Walsh: Mrs. Dalloway's friend and old flame
- Sally Seton: Mrs. Dalloway's old friend
- Septimus Warren Smith: World War I veteran suffering from PTSD
- Lucrezia "Rézia" Smith: Septimus' Italian wife.
- Sir William Bradshaw: Septimus' doctor
- Hugh Whitbread: Mrs. Dalloway's friend
- Elizabeth Dalloway: Clarissa and Richard's only daughter.
- Doris Kilman: Elizabeth’s history teacher of German ancestry
- Lady Bruton: Add a description of this character.
- Dr. Holmes
- Ellie Henderson
- Mrs. Filmer
- Mrs. Peters
- Helena
- Evans
- Lady Bradshaw
- Mr. Brewer
- Millicent Bruton
- Mrs. Walker
- Mrs. Dempster
- Mr. Whittaker
- Mrs. Marsham
- Daisy
- Mrs. Hilbery
- Lucy
- Mrs. Elmer
- Mrs. Barnet
- Milton
- Harry
- Gordon
- Maisie Johnson
- Milly Brush
Quotes edit
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“What is this terror? What is this ecstasy? he thought to himself. What is it that fills me with this extraordinary excitement? It is Clarissa, he said. For there she was.”
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“She had the oddest sense of being herself invisible; unseen; unknown; there being no more marrying, no more having of children now, but only this astonishing and rather solemn progress with the rest of them, up Bond Street, this being Mrs. Dalloway; not even Clarissa any more; this being Mrs. Richard Dalloway.”
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“Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself.”
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“A thing there was that mattered; a thing wreathed with chatter, defaced, obscured in her own life, let drop everyday in corruption, lies, chatter. This he had preserved. Death was defiance. Death was an attempt to communicate; people feeling the impossibility of reaching the centre which, mystically, evaded them; closeness drew apart; rapture faded, one was alone. There was an embrace in death”
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“She felt somehow very like him--the young man who had killed himself. She felt glad that he had done it; thrown it away. The clock was striking. The leaden circles dissolved in the air. He made her feel the beauty; made her feel the fun. But she must go back”
Setting & Locations edit
- England
- London
- Bourton
- India
- Heaven
- Bond Street
- Regent's Park
- Manchester, England
- Piccadilly
- Harley Street
- Whitehall
- Burma
- Kensington
- Buckingham Palace
- Westminster
- Victoria Street
- Big Ben
- Arlington Street
- Piccadilly Circus
- Trafalgar Square
- Tottenham Court Road
- Mayfair
- St. Paul's Cathedral
- Fleet Street
First Sentence edit
Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself.
Table of Contents edit
There are no chapters in Mrs. Dalloway.
Series & Lists edit
This is book 107 of 213 in Best English-Language Fiction of the 20th Century. (authoritative list)
This book is in The Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge. (community list)
This book is in Hopeless Romantic. (community list)
This book is in Guardian 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read. (authoritative list)
This book is in TIME Magazine Top 100 English-Language Novels. (community list)
This is book 698 of 1286 in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. (authoritative list)
This is book 24 of 93 in Newsweek's Top 100 Books: The Meta-List. (authoritative list)
First Edition edit
Original Language: English
Publisher: Hogarth Press
Country: England
Publication Date: May 25 1925
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 293
Publisher: Hogarth Press
Country: England
Publication Date: May 25 1925
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 293
Classification edit
- Library of Congress: PR6045.O72 M7
- Dewey: 823.912
Subjects edit
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Links to Supplemental Material edit
- Wikipedia
- Sparknotes
- Book and Film Review: Virginia Woolf is one of the great novelists of history, ranking just behind Joyce and Faulkner in her modernist approach and stream-of-consciousness style. Mrs. Dalloway was the first of her two masterpieces (published four years before her other, To the Lighthouse). It is one of the great examples of stream-of-consciousness, that style that depends on internal thought process and allows us to truly dive deep down within the character rather than simply listening to their straight-forward narration: “It rasped her, though, to have stirring about in her this brutal monster! to hear twigs cracking and feel hooves planted down in the depths of that leaf-encumbered forest, the soul.” But this is just a snipped of the sentence, which goes on for another eight lines. Woolf’s prose follows directly in the footsteps of Joyce, but explores the depth of a woman’s soul in a way that no other modernist writer was capable of.
Movie Connections edit
- Mrs. Dalloway (IMDb): 1997 release.
- The Hours (IMDb): 2002 release.
Books Influenced by This Book edit
Books That Cite This Book edit
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