Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

Mrs. Dalloway highlights Ms. Woolf’s knack for stream of consciousness minus the tediousness so many other writers fail to note. Her ability to capture the uniqueness of a multitude of characters made for smooth reading.

Set in post WWI England, the novel addresses class, PTSD, disease and suicide in a 24-hour period preceding a party being hosted by Mrs. Dalloway.

Clarissa Dalloway narrates much of the novel. She holds herself at arms length from those around her so we never get that in depth view of her true being. As quickly as a truth slips out, she quickly reels it in, fearing that she may embrace that image, but others may reject it.

Clarissa’s ex, Peter Walsh, still obviously carries a torch for her. Unlike Clarissa, he is emotionally expressive and is easily brought to tears. He both admires and scorns Clarissa, still conflicted after the passing of many decades,

Miss Killman is the martyred tutor to Clarissa’s daughter, Elizabeth. Bitter about her lot in life, she despises Clarissa and punishes her by influencing her daughter.

Suffering from severe PTSD, Septimus Warren Smith never truly returned from the war. Rather, he subsists with his wife’s support and has found his life to be unbearable. Surely, Clarissa and Septimus merged become Virginia.

Quotes:

Septimus Warren Smith, aged about thirty, pale-faced, beak-nosed, wearing brown shoes and a shabby overcoat, with hazel eyes which had that look of apprehension in them which makes complete strangers apprehensive too.

It ended in a transcendental theory which, with her horror of death allowed her to believe, or say that she believed (for all her scepticism), that since our apparitions, the part of us which appears, are so momentary compared with the other, the unseen part to of us, which spreads wide, the unseen might survive, be recovered somehow attached to this person or that, or even haunting certain places, after death. Perhaps — perhaps.

I’d love to be in the shadows at a party hosted by Ms. Woolf and watch her take in every nuance of her guests as she quietly observes their every movement and every dialog. Revealing myself, I’d ask to compare notes to see if our perceptions were in sync.

My rating for Mrs. Dalloway is a 7 out of 10.

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Next up , Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo…