Mrs Dalloway (Oxford World's Classics) - Softcover

Woolf, Virginia

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0192839705 ISBN 13: 9780192839701

Publisher: Oxford Paperbacks, 2000

Synopsis

'Fear no more the heat of the sun.' Mrs Dalloway, Virginia Woolf's fourth novel, offers the reader an impression of a single June day in London in 1923. Clarissa Dalloway, the wife of a Conservative member of parliament, is preparing to give an evening party, while the shell-shocked Septimus Warren Smith hears the birds in Regent's Park chattering in Greek. There seems to be nothing, except perhaps London, to link Clarissa and Septimus. She is middle-aged and prosperous, with a sheltered happy life behind her; Smith is young, poor, and driven to hatred of himself and the whole human race. Yet both share a terror of existence, and sense the pull of death. The world of Mrs Dalloway is evoked in Woolf's famous stream of consciousness style, in a lyrical and haunting language which has made this, from its publication in 1925, one of her most popular novels.

About this title

Review

Clarissa Dalloway is civilised--without the ostentation of a socialite, but with enough distinction to attract them to her parties. She finds excess offensive, but surrounds herself with the highest quality and has an abhorrence for anything ugly or awkward. Mrs. Dalloway is as much a character study as it is a commentary on the ills and benefits society gleans from class. Through Virginia Woolf, we spend a day with Clarissa as she interacts with servants, her children, her husband, and even an ex-lover. As she plans and executes one of her celebrated parties, she reveals inner machinations incongruous with her class-defined behaviors, that ultimately enable her to transcend them.

Review

One of the most moving, revolutionary artworks of the twentieth century (Michael Cunningham)

Woolf is Modern. She feels close to us. (Jeanette Winterson)

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0192839705
• ISBN 13: 9780192839701
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256
• Editor: Bradshaw David