The Mrs. Dalloway Reader

In Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf captures a woman’s joys and frustrations in a single day by revealing her thought processes. Although some other character’s thoughts are captured as well, it was Clarissa Dalloway that I related to.

thoughts on first read

I believe Woolf is an acquired tasted, and she is meant to be read slowly, ponderously. She is meant to be reread. No, she’s not for everyone.

Thoughts on a reread

A pairing, that of Virginia Woolf--who elevated literature to new heights with her glimmeringly beautiful prose and acute renderings of human consciousness but whose life has become the stuff of myth and speculation--and Francine Prose, a novelist and scholar of the creative process and women's lives. Prose's incisive introduction is worth the price of admission to this well-conceived study of the evolution and impact of Woolf's revolutionary novel, Mrs. Dalloway. Prose neatly characterizes what exactly Woolf achieves in this masterpiece, invaluable commentary that paves the way for Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway's Party, the sequence of seven stories that seeded the novel, and relevant entries from Woolf's diaries. Prose wisely includes the short story "The Garden Party," by Katherine Mansfield, the only writer Woolf envied, and presents a set of suitably eloquent critical essays by the likes of Michael Cunningham, Margo Jefferson, Mary Gordon, James Woods, and Sigrid Nunez. And then there's the jewel in question, Mrs. Dalloway itself, which completes this reader.