'She had the perpetual sense, as she watched the taxi cabs, of being out, out, far out to sea and alone; she always had the feeling that it was very, very, dangerous to live even one day.'
Often ranked as one of the best novels ever written in the English language, Mrs Dalloway showcases Virginia Woolf at her very best.
Set in post-First World War Britain, Woolf's masterpiece follows Clarissa Dalloway, a vivacious yet self-reflective upper-class woman, through a single day in her life. Preparing for a party that very evening, Clarissa keeps busy by moving through the streets of London, her thoughts drifting between past and present, revealing lost loves, secret regrets and the quiet ache of grief. Interwoven with Clarissa's narrative is that of Septimus Warren Smith, a war veteran who suffers terribly from his traumatic past. As their two lives tangentially cross, the reader is gifted with a profound commentary on time, pain, memory and the fragile beauty of life. Famed for its stream-of-consciousness style, Mrs Dalloway asserts Virginia Woolf as the literary genius she was, and it continues to move contemporary readers to this very day.
Virginia Woolf (1882 – 1941) was one of the most significant novelists of the twentieth century. A modernist writer and progressive thinker, she is known for her stream of consciousness narrative style and influence on feminist criticism. Her works have been translated into over fifty languages and are widely read and adapted to this day.
