Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
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Book Reviews of Mrs. Dalloway
Book Review: How to Throw a Party
Summary: 5 Stars
Though there are some passing resemblances to Jane Austen, the comedy of manners, and Victorian narrative satire, this is a modernist novel and a fairly accessible introduction to Woolf, unless the reader is overly impatient or tone-deaf. Woolf creates a character's interior life through a virtuosic, highly mobile third-person narrator, who might be thought of as the character's "persona," not merely "expressing" the character's thoughts but "mirroring" how the character perceives him or herself as seen by others. Moreover, the indefinite pronouns can shift unexpectedly or occur in too close proximity to make identification easy or even definite. As a result, the reader has to work overtime to achieve entrance into the mind of the "right" character while simultaneously sensing the liquid, interpenetrating and shared qualities of human identity itself. And finally there's that tone, now soft, now loud, and rarely without irony.
Woolf makes it fairly easy on the reader with the broad, sardonic strokes she uses to paint the practically villainous Sir William Bradshaw, the eminent psychiatrist viewed by many (especially himself) as the scientific high priest of this cross-section of deluded London luminaries; and she's equally nasty to her other "villain," Miss Kilman, a repressed and embittered born-again Christian who, like Sir William, lives by the code of "conversion," Woolf's euphemism for those powerful personalities who are bent upon breaking, controlling and dominating the will of anyone not strong enough to resist them. The other portraits are more subtle, requiring the reader either to hear the soft, nuanced ironical tones or risk missing both the social satire and the character. Woolf's targets range, perhaps not surprisingly, from the pretense, pride, and hypocrisy of an out-of-touch social stratum that clings to the "orderly" past; to the arrogance of modern medical "science"; to, more surprisingly, the suffocating alternatives offered by both religion and love. She uses the term "Human Nature" ironically, making it refer to those individuals who cannot see with understanding, empathy or vision, substituting for "life" the ego's own conventional, reductive and limited sense of a world that's all surface and order.
Readers lured to this novel because of Cunningham's "The Hours" (novel or film) may be disappointed or quickly frustrated. Moving from Cunningham to Woolf is a bit like going from Fitzgerald to Faulkner, or from Austen to Shakespeare. What you immediately notice is the far greater range and more inclusive thematic focus and, most importantly, the sheer power and vitality of the prose (from fluid motion to dynamic rush). Woolf--like Joyce, Faulkner, and Shakespeare--employs a syntax that can cause the head to spin and the earth: she's a writer who represents not merely individual characters but captures a microcosm of life not to mention the life of language itself.
The greatest challenge "Mrs. Dalloway" presents to a first-time reader is never to let up. It's essential to stay with Clarissa throughout her entire day, finally becoming a fully engaged participant in the party itself--the final thirty pages of the novel, which contain some of Woolf's best writing. Especially critical is the extended moment, almost 20 pages into the party scene, when Clarissa, like Septimus, walks to the window and has her epiphany. It's a moment highly reminiscent of Gabriel Conroy's singular internal struggle and ultimate attainment of vision in the closing paragraphs of "The Dead" (Woolf was not especially fond of Joyce, but it's hard to believe she was not influenced by him). At that moment, Clarissa sees her affinity and even oneness with Septimus, a character who suffers internally but is capable of resisting the worse alternative of the "cures" offered by Dr. Bradshaw, one of the guests at Clarissa's own party. The insight produces action: one character chooses death; the other, life. But Woolf enables us to see these apparently opposite choices as existential cognates: both characters make choices that enable them to save their souls. (The "Death of the Soul" is a theme introduced early in the novel by the insightful Peter, a "failure" by society's standards and his own admission and someone who cannot get the better of his fixations--on the irretrievable past and his own youth. By the story's end, it is not Peter but Clarissa who presents a whole and integrated self, capable of separating the illusory from the real, of the once dependent "Mrs. Dalloway" from the newly enlightened "Clarissa."
Cunningham is a first-rate stylist and craftsman who can tell a story that's moving and evocative, a narrative, moreover, that connects with today's readers by affirming the choices available to the self. But it feels like a mechanical assembly next to the vibrant novel that is its source and inspiration. Ms. Woolf, like her character Clarissa, knows how to throw a party.
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: The Mystery of Human Personality
Summary: 5 Stars
Although the time covered in this complex novel is only one day, Virginia Woolf, through her genius, manages to cover a lifetime unraveling and exposing the mysteries of the human personality.The central character of the novel is the delicate Clarissa Dalloway, a disciplined English gentlewoman who provides the perfect contrast to another of the book's characters, Septimus Warren Smith, an ex-soldier whose world is disintegrating into chaos. Although Clarissa and Septimus never meet, it is through the interweaving of each one's story into a gossamer whole that Woolf works her genius.
The book is set on a June day in 1923, as Clarissa prepares for a party that evening. Unfolding events trigger memories and recollections of her past, and Woolf offers these bits and pieces to the reader who must then construct the psychological and emotional makeup of Clarissa Dalloway in his own mind. We also learn much about Clarissa through the thoughts of other characters, such as her one-time lover, Peter Walsh, her friend, Sally Seton, her husband, Richard and her daughter Elizabeth.
It is Septimus Warren Smith, however, driven to the brink of insanity by the war, an insanity that even his wife's tender ministrations cannot cure, who acts as Clarissa's societal antithesis and serves to divide her world into the "then" and the "now."
In this extremely complex and character-driven novel, Woolf offers her readers a challenge. The novel is not separated into chapters; almost all of the action occurs in the thoughts and reminiscences of the characters and the reader must piece together the story from the random bits and pieces of information each character provides. The complexity of the characters may add to the frustration because Woolf makes it difficult for the reader to receive any single dominant impression of any one of them. This, however, forms the essence of the novel and displays the genius of Woolf: It is impossible to describe any human being in a simple phrase or collection of adjectives. We are many things to many people, all of them somewhat different, none of them the same, just as we are many things to ourselves.
Throughout the book, the reader is constantly called upon to compare and contrast Peter Walsh and Richard Dalloway, the two significant love interests in Clarissa Dalloway's life. Compared to Peter, an adventurer, Richard Dalloway appears more than a bit reserved and dour. But, readers must constantly question this view of Richard as his personality seems to alter with his altering relationships.
Intimacy, particularly emotional intimacy, and the preservation of one's uniqueness are two of Woolf's continuing themes. We find that Clarissa married Richard, in part, to preserve her sense of self; Peter would have demanded far more of her than she was, perhaps, willing to give. Here, Clarissa and Septimus, so outwardly different, would find they share much in common. While Clarissa feels threatened by her daughter's tenacious tutor, Miss Kilman, as well as by Peter, Septimus feels threatened by his doctor. Each feels the others are asking too much. Septimus and Clarissa even agree on the subject of death: "There is no death," Septimus declares, while Clarissa, the atheist, secretly believes that bits and pieces of her will remain intact forever.
Although some characters in this book may, at first, appear to be one-dimensional, we soon learn that all are extraordinarily complex. There is Sally, impulsive yet considerate; Richard, bashful yet timid; Peter inhibited yet adventurous; Septimus, insane yet credible. And Clarissa? She is all of these things and more.
It is, however, Woolf's torrential stream-of-consciousness prose that makes this novel a true masterpiece. Even those who find the plot of little interest will be drawn in by the exquisiteness of Woolf's language. This is a complex, character study in the fullest sense of the word, one with no easy answers, for Woolf, in the end seems to be telling us that perhaps, at our essence, we are all unknowable, even to ourselves.
Book Review: Well Worth a Read - Take your Time
Summary: 5 Stars
So many people have gone back to read (or re-read) Mrs. Dalloway since The Hours came out that it almost makes me want to have Hollywood create interesting movie versions of numerous other classics. Think of the possibilities! It's almost a shame that people are forced to "plow through" some of these books as course assignments, where all of their enjoyment is completely lost. With movies, it encourages people to read them voluntarily when they are older and can relate to the themes of the book.
While young teens might find the musings of a middle aged woman confusing or tedious, most of us who are over the age of 25 understand completely where Mrs. Dalloway is coming from. She's wandering through the streets of London, going about the chores before an important party. Her mind is flitting all over as she waits for the road to clear so she can pass, while she chooses flowers, while she runs into friends. She thinks about how the party's going to go, how her daughter's doing, what her husband is up to. She's barely aware of the "real" world around her.
As if this isn't enough, an old boyfriend from her teen years shows up. That sets off all sorts of other thoughts. Should she have stayed with him after all? Then there was that girlish crush she had on a female friend. Someone wants to come to her party who wasn't invited. Her husband's off lunching with another woman. Finally the party starts, and she worries that it's not going well, until she finally settles in and is comfortable.
In amongst all of Mrs. Dalloway's angsts and daydreaming, we also get glimpses into other peoples' minds - her old boyfriend, her daughter, her daughter's tutor, and so on. This lets us view the world from a variety of angles. Tying it together is Big Ben, chiming away the hours as the day goes by.
I realize, if you're used to action-oriented straightforward stories like The Da Vinci Code, that it might take a "slowing down" to read this story. Where I zip through other books at break-neck speed, when I re-read Mrs. Dalloway I have to sit back, take a deep breath, and go along at a slow pace. If you don't quite get the hang of the characters the first time through, read through it again. Once you understand who the people are and how they relate, it makes the inner musings much more clear. It's its own rhythm, the slow, steady rhythm of a day in London. It's not about racing to a goal. It's about the daydreams of life that happen *while* you're preparing for something.
Interestingly, another book - "The Party" - gathers together many of the short stories Woolf wrote at the same time as Mrs. Dalloway. One in particular is a different version of the beginning of this story. In Mrs. Dalloway, the title character is going off to buy flowers for herself. The imagery is very powerful, and very meaningful for women who are used to having flowers bought for them - but not getting them for themselves. Intriguingly, "The Party" version has her going out and getting grey gloves, and wondering if they should have buttons of not. The power of the scene is *really* changed. It makes you wonder what other famous stories had different versions of their beginnings, and how much the story might have been different if they hadn't redone it. I definitely recommend getting both books and reading them together.
Then rent and watch The Hours, and see all of the interweavings of the stories!
Book Review: A Brilliant Stream Of Consciousness Narrative Of A Single Day & A Lifetime
Summary: 5 Stars
Virginia Woolf's brilliant novel, "Mrs. Dalloway," originally entitled "The Hours," is a vivid account of one woman's thoughts and actions during the course of a single day, June 23, 1923. That woman, Clarissa Dalloway, is the upper-middle class wife of Richard Dalloway, an affluent Member of Parliament. As the day begins, Clarissa, buys flowers for a dinner party she plans to give that evening, where prominent society guests and political figures will mingle, engaging in same banal conversation and banter as always. Clarissa is renowned as a hostess in London society, an asset to her husband.
When Peter Walsh, a man she hasn't seen for thirty years, pays her a surprise visit, her thoughts take her back to the summer of 1890. She reflects on the choices she made as a young woman and how they shaped her life and effected her as a person.
Juxtaposed upon Clarissa's story, her character and elite social position, is that of Septimus Warren Smith, a shell-shocked veteran of the First World War. While the prosperous Mrs. Dalloway purchases her flowers, Septimus sits in Regent's Park listening to the sparrows sing to him, in what he believes is Greek. He is still young, though shattered in spirit. Septimus is poor with few resources to improve his health or position in life. Yet the two individuals share common fears. Toward the end of the book, their lives intersect, for just a moment in time.
Ms. Woolf uses flashbacks as a method to broaden the novel's timeframe from a day to a lifetime. She employs stream-of-consciousness, a relatively new literary device back then, to allow her characters' thoughts to travel back and forth in time, reflecting their emotions, and enriching them tremendously as complex personages. In literature, there are relatively few characters who approach the memorable Mrs. Dalloway in depth. The author believed that the remarkable, the momentous, could be found amongst the mundane details and occurrences of everyday life. Characters are tied together by time's thread, weaving a tapestry through the years. In the novel, Big Ben marks the passage of time, booming out the hour, a reminder that precious moments of life are passing as it tolls.
Virginia Woolf is one of the most talented and noteworthy literary figures of the twentieth century. She is renowned as an innovative novelist, especially for her contribution to the development of the stream-of-consciousness narrative technique. Her prose is some of the most poetic I have ever read and her character development, especially in "Mrs. Dalloway," is superb. She clearly demonstrates in her fiction and essays her concerns about many of the social and political issues of the early twentieth century.
This is an outstanding novel. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Please take the time to savor its richness.
JANA