Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Mrs. Dalloway
Book Review: A day in many lives
Summary: 5 Stars
"Mrs. Dalloway" by Virginia Woolf was a surprise to me, even though I thought I had an idea of what to expect. It was a lovely surprise, actually. I knew it was considered an "experimental" novel, and focused on only one day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, a 50-something wife of an upper class and successful, but not quite successful enough governmental official. But I didn't know that the stream of consciousness as Clarissa prepares for a party that evening, and remembers and considers her life, is shared among multiple characters. I loved the way the viewpoint flowed among the characters, in a way, as if once they shared an experience on the street or in the park, the point of view would switch to the next person and follow him or her. It was fascinating and done even-handedly.
The flow of point of view brought out some key differences in the characters. Clarissa, while one empathizes with her, seems shallow and self-involved when compared with Septimus, the only one of the main characters who doesn't appear at the party at the end of the day. Septimus is seriously mentally ill, the result of shell shock from World War I. He has an Italian wife he has brought back to London with him from the war, and she is beside herself with worry. Her husband talks to people who aren't there. He writes cryptic notes to himself and leaves them about. She can't connect with him anymore. When it's her point of view, her loneliness is palpable and painful. She's losing hope. Septimus, who watched his war buddy die and "took it like a man" is afraid he no longer feels anything, and has been getting "treatment" from a family practitioner who has no idea what to do for his psychological problems.
Meanwhile, Clarissa prepares for her party by mending her gown. Her former love interest, the man she was involved with before she became engaged to her husband, Richard, comes back into her life from India and drops in her. She remembers that she always feels judged by Peter Walsh and sees him as someone who has made poor and ruinous errors in judgment where women are concerned. He's in London to get a divorce for his new interest, an Indian woman married to an Indian military officer, so that he can be with her. His being back in London and her receiving him in her home causes them to remember their pasts, including a woman, Sally, they had both known, who was very antiestablishment, and with whom Clarissa seems to have been in love, as well.
The day moves forward, and the author ingeniously inserts chiming clocks throughout the narrative to keep the reader anchored in time as the characters' minds flow back and forth over the years and the recent days. The contrast of Clarissa's and Septimus's lives is striking, and there is an idea that Peter Walsh's connection with India, Clarissa's thoughts about her own death and Septimus's pain over the death of his friend and his lack of feeling are commenting on a coming demise of the British Empire. When some characters speak of a patient's death during Clarissa's party, she is selfishly offended; though someone has died, she feels very petulantly negative toward those guests, thinking that they have "brought death to my party."
The book is very thoughtful, very considered, and always, of course, subjective. It's a wonder to read because although it flows so well among all these people who tend to answer each other and make pointed contrasts, there is a lot to think about within this one day. One gains from this perception: You know Clarissa's feelings and you know others feelings about her. It's an interesting way to see a fictional character.0 I would like to read it again sometime, just because I know there's a lot more there.
I did want to mention that having read "The Hours" by Michael Cunningham, I wanted to read this novel, which inspired it. After reading "Mrs. Dalloway" I like "The Hours" less. Things that I credited Cunningham for were taken, sometimes whole, from "Mrs. Dalloway," and I did feel that the end of "The Hours" seemed wrong, not quite believable, not quite what we were led ahead into. "Mrs. Dalloway" did not disappoint in this way.
Book Review: A day in the life ( I really dislike this book)
Summary: 2 Stars
I read the novel "The HoursThe Hours" where the assumption
is that Virginia Woolf killed herself. I just read a murder mystery where the solution was very differentA Breach of Promise (William Monk Novels).
I changed my ideas about this book as a result. It is no longer the depressing
death anthem that the modern history gives us, but a life affirmation of a female
in a male dominated society that would bleed the life out of her for being different.
I think this understanding fits better.
Book Review: A good book, but tough read!
Summary: 4 Stars
Well, I decided to read Mrs. Dalloway because of "The Hours". I didn't expect this book to be such a difficult read and contemplated stopping many times. However, i pressed on and am glad i did. Virginia Woolf writes about several different characters; all on the same day which leads to Clarissa Dalloway's party that evening. What made this such a hard read for me was that Woolf would jump from one character to another and I wouldn't know who she was speaking of.
This story talks of the customs of these character who live in England, and also has some flashbacks into their past. There was one total shock in this book, which was when Woolf wrote of Clarissa and her friend Sally share a pretty passionate kiss.
Although it was a difficult read, Woolf was right on track, and some of her themes in this book hold true in today's society!
Book Review: A modernist masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
On a single day in June, Clarissa Dalloway is preparing for the party she is giving that evening. Septimus Warren Smith struggles with mental illness as a result of his experiences in WWI. Using stream-of-consciousness technique Virginia Woolf explores the thoughts, emotions and sensations of these two characters and others connected with them. Past and present commingle in her characters' minds and this merging of past history and present moment allows for much richer presentation of the characters and their universe than the plot would suggest.The chief pleasures of the book are the vivid, evocative, poetic language, and Woolf's gift for inner dialogue - the stories characters tell themselves - which in turn reveals them to us.
How good is the book? I "Mrs. Dalloway" can be found on many lists of the greatest novels of the 20th century, one of Virginia Woolf's major achievements. More often than not, it's considered her best work after "To the Lighthouse." Personally, I loved the book, and it led me to start reading her other books and to the biographies. The practical question is not whether this is a good book - it is arguably a great book. The question is whether it is for you.
The book is unapologetically literary, which means that if you don't find language a genuine pleasure, you probably won't enjoy it. For those who do, the rich, imaginative language is the reason for reading. There is little in the way of conventional suspense to keep one turning the pages. The stream-of-consciousness style is demanding, and it requires an attentive reader. On the other hand, it would be a mistake to overemphasize the difficulties. The action of the book is relatively easy to follow, and one does not need a concordance to appreciate it. In fact a good sense of the language can be had simply by reading the first few pages provided in Amazon's section, "Look Inside the Book."
Book Review: A not all together awful stream of consciousness book
Summary: 2 Stars
Mrs. Dalloway is a book very much like James Joyce's "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" which I can say makes it a hard recommendation. The point of view flows from one character to the next without any warning and many readers may be easily lost. I would not reccmond this as a first venture into the horridly confusing technique of Stream of Consciousness. Frankly, a knowing book editor would have helped this book a lot.
On the upside, there are some very serious Sapphic undertones to the rambling of the book which make it more interesting than James Joyce whining about how he got beaten by the other boys in boarding school. But there are similiar themes of repression in the two books.
The side plot involving Septimus Warren Smith and his wife Rezia was more interesting than Clarissa Dalloway and her silly party and repressed lesbian leanings