Mrs. Dalloway

by Virginia Woolf

book data

12,539 ratings, 3.83 average rating, 923 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		31%
4		33%
3		23%
2		8%
1		3%

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published

October 28th 2002 (first published 1925) by Harcourt

binding

Hardcover, 216 pages

characters

Clarissa Dalloway, Septimus Warren Smith, Peter Walsh, Sally Seton

isbn

0151009988 (isbn13: 9780151009985)

description

As Clarissa Dalloway walks through London on a fine June morning, a sky-writing plane captures her attention. Crowds stare upwards to decipher the me...more

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09/29/07

Jessica rated it:

bookshelves: happyendings-

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in January, 2005

recommends it for: broke, book-loving teenagers and anyone else looking for a cheap high

Okay, so this is very fabulous novel and in my opinion one of the Greatest, despite the fact that for me it was not exactly a breeze to get through. I mean, it wasn't painful or anything, but nor was it one I just sat down and plowed through like a maniac until I was through. I carried the thing around with me for awhile and poked at it in fits and starts over a period of time. I think Virginia Woolf is a genius, but there's something kind of inaccessible about her to me, maybe because I'm not a...more Okay, so this is very fabulous novel and in my opinion one of the Greatest, despite the fact that for me it was not exactly a breeze to get through. I mean, it wasn't painful or anything, but nor was it one I just sat down and plowed through like a maniac until I was through. I carried the thing around with me for awhile and poked at it in fits and starts over a period of time. I think Virginia Woolf is a genius, but there's something kind of inaccessible about her to me, maybe because I'm not a genius, or because I'm not British, or severely mentally-ill.

Anyway, the last page of this novel is among the most brilliant passages ever written in the English language. I still remember where I was when I read it: on the One train, headed downtown, somewhere in the seventies, I think. When I read the very end of this novel, I got an incredible head rush which raced down my spine and spread a glorious, speedy, tingling sensation throughout my central nervous system. YES! Finishing this book actually got me HIGH! It really, really DID!

I don't want to talk it up too much, and I can't promise *Mrs. Dalloway* will have the same effect on you. However, it is a Great book, and everybody should read it. Plus, I'm pretty sure there's a special loophole in the Important Book rules that says people who read *Mrs. Dalloway* don't have to finish *Ulysses,* *especially* if you are a girl (hey, I know that's not fair, but I don't make the rules). If time is an issue for you, this is a great deal to take advantage of, as *Mrs. Dalloway* is not only a great deal shorter, but also more accessible. Plus you will be spared the image of Leopold Bloom's penis floating in his bath water, which, let's face it, is pretty gross and will indelibly mark your fragile psyche.

And for the rest of your life, whenever you are having a party, bustling about your neighborhood obtaining flowers, beer, etc., thinking about your life, you can pretend to be Mrs. Dalloway. And this is a fun thing to do, for me, anyway.(less)

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11/24/07

Yolanda rated it:

bookshelves: 2007

Read in December, 2007

recommends it for: lovers of semi-colons and minutia

My reasoning for reading this book are three-fold:
- I'd tried once and gotten about 3/4 of the way through, but never finished
- It is by Virginia Woolf, who was discussed in Ursula LeGuin's Steering the Craft, a book about writing, as an example of great use of sentence length and complex syntax
- Woolf's A Room of One's Own was discussed in my literary theory class as one of the seminal books of Feminist theory, and Mrs. Dalloway is very much a women's novel focusing in on...more My reasoning for reading this book are three-fold:
- I'd tried once and gotten about 3/4 of the way through, but never finished
- It is by Virginia Woolf, who was discussed in Ursula LeGuin's Steering the Craft, a book about writing, as an example of great use of sentence length and complex syntax
- Woolf's A Room of One's Own was discussed in my literary theory class as one of the seminal books of Feminist theory, and Mrs. Dalloway is very much a women's novel focusing in on a singular day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway

What I've that it contains all of the above, and more. It's actually one long continuous piece with only a few section breaks. There are no chapters and nothing to separate one passage from another, save the occasional double line break and corresponding half-inch of blank space between two paragraphs. In such a way all the different narratives, all the different points of view, all the different characters, are brought together as a seemingly endless thought--punctuated by momentary breaths of air. In the introduction Maureen Howard mentions a metaphor employed at the beginning of the book: the metaphor of water, of swimming, of "taking a plunge."

That is precisely what the reader does: you plunge into one June day in the lives of all these characters, the day Clarissa Dalloway is to give her party, and follow them through their thoughts and actions, both the mundane and extraordinary. Woolf's epic sentences, containing semi-colon sandwiched fragments, force you to take a big breath before plunging in, because often times you forget what she's said at the beginning far before the period is within sight. We're swimmers not quite prepared for the strength her literary tide. Those half-inches serve as helpful intermissions for us to gather our thoughts and catch our breaths before continuing.

That being said, at the end of this marathon I find myself both connected to and disconnected from the story of these characters. I will have to read it again to better understand, but from what I've gleaned first read-through her fame is not undeserved. There is a brilliant understated passion to her descriptions and word choices. Woolf is absolutely deliberate in her gestures, forcing us, as readers, to be more perceptive of subtle nuances and to consider each critically. This isn't a casual stroll, or shouldn't if you really want to experience the complete story.(less)

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07/26/07

Christina rated it:

bookshelves: classics, favorites

Read in January, 2007

Although Mrs. Dalloway was my first foray into Woolf's fiction (I had only read her essay collections A Room of One's Own and Three Guineas), it did not take long for me to become utterly enthralled in this novel. The experience of reading Mrs. Dalloway is similar to viewing an impressionistic painting—just as the eye flits over images, shadows, and suggestions of objects in a Monet or a Degas piece, a reader engrossed in Mrs. Dalloway will find that the language carries you along as Woolf dep...more

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04/28/08

Jason Pettus rated it:

Read in April, 2008

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)

The CCLaP 100: In which I read for the first time a hundred so-called "classics," then write reports on whether or not I think they deserve the label

Book #15: Mrs Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf (1925)

The story in a nutshell:
For those who don't know, mos...more

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04/04/08

Martine rated it:

bookshelves: british, early-twentieth-century, film, modern-fiction, modernism, psychological-drama

Read in March, 2003

recommends it for: people to whom the words 'death in life' actually mean anything

I feel odd reviewing Mrs Dalloway just days after writing a lecture-length review of The Hours, which touches upon much the same themes. Yet I think I'll give it a try.

Mrs Dalloway portrays a day in the lives of various people living in London in 1923. At the heart of the novel is Septimus Warren Smith, a WWI veteran who is suffering from shell shock and schizophrenia. Septimus' descent into madness (clearly modelled on Virginia Woolf's own) and relationship with his spouse are juxt...more I feel odd reviewing Mrs Dalloway just days after writing a lecture-length review of The Hours, which touches upon much the same themes. Yet I think I'll give it a try.

Mrs Dalloway portrays a day in the lives of various people living in London in 1923. At the heart of the novel is Septimus Warren Smith, a WWI veteran who is suffering from shell shock and schizophrenia. Septimus' descent into madness (clearly modelled on Virginia Woolf's own) and relationship with his spouse are juxtaposed with those of Clarissa Dalloway, a 52-year-old upper-class lady who is about to throw a large party for her MP husband and other more or less illustrious personages. An unexpected encounter with her former suitor Peter Walsh, whom she hasn't seen for many years, leaves Clarissa musing about the past -- about the people she used to know, the people she used to love, and the decisions she has taken over the years. At various points Septimus' and Clarissa's stories intersect, as do several other characters' stories. In exemplary stream-of-consciousness style, Woolf takes us inside the heads of all these characters, sharing with us their thoughts, emotions and impressions of each other. What ensues is less a plot-driven story than a barrage of memories, associations and epiphanies, often tinged with regret and nostalgia. The emphasis is on individual persons' responses to the passage of time and other sources of unhappiness, but in depicting these, Woolf shows the mores and manners of society at large, thus presenting the reader with a microcosm of life, all wrapped up in a single day in the lives of some fairly self-absorbed but reasonably likeable people.

I can see why young and callous readers might dislike Mrs Dalloway, as I've been told many do. The book contains very little dialogue and even fewer exciting plotlines. Yet it would be woefully wrong to state that nothing happens in it, as the internal drama that goes on is ferocious. Take Septimus, for instance, who goes from feeling completely numb to being completely overwhelmed by both society and his own demons. Septimus is a startling character -- the kind of character who very seriously says 'Now we will kill ourselves' in the middle of what his wife thinks is a perfectly happy picnic. For her part, Clarissa Dalloway is hardly less conflicted. She may not be insane (quite the contrary -- to the other characters in the book she seems perfectly in charge of her own life and at ease in society), but she feels like she is suffocating and is torn between various aspects of herself, which prevents her from really making her mark in any significant way. If her day pans out less dramatically than Septimus', it is not for lack of internal fireworks. Like Septimus, Clarissa has to take some major decisions -- decisions that go considerably farther than what kind of flowers to buy for her party.

Woolf's prose is wonderfully fluid. She effortlessly links her characters' stories by means of symbols and metaphors, drawing her strands ever tighter until all the characters meet at Clarissa's party. Moreover, her prose has a marvellously cinematic quality. Her descriptions of people, places and the 'exquisite moments' that brighten up her characters' lives are so vivid that you can easily picture them in your mind's eye, including the cuts that a film director adapting this story to the screen would use. I can think of few more vivid fictional portrayals of London than Mrs Dalloway. As for the characters, they're not all as instantly likeable as mad Septimus and his poor, suffering wife, but in their own quiet, snobbish, understated ways, they're just as real. Woolf knows exactly when to draw them in bold, satirical strokes and when to go for the finer detail. The result is a wonderfully varied slice of life that may not have much action but does touch upon some pretty major themes. The death of the soul, anyone?

I could say more about Mrs Dalloway, but I think Woolf herself said it best when she wrote in her journal before getting started on the book: 'I want to give life & death, sanity & insanity; I want to criticise the social system & show it at work, at its most intense.' In her own inimitable way, she did just that, and then some.
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01/01/08

Amy rated it:

(review of isbn 0156030357)

bookshelves: for-class

Read in January, 2008

Although I only gave Mrs. Dalloway two stars, I should clarify that that represents quite a gain, because I have long despised this book. When I read it as an undergraduate, my 19 year-old-self found it self-indulgent, overly emotional, and extremely tedious. My 36 year-old-self, I was pleased to discover, is slightly more tolerant and more patient than its younger version. So while I will never truly be a fan of Virginia Woolf--or, for that matter, Modernist Novels in general (excepting...more Although I only gave Mrs. Dalloway two stars, I should clarify that that represents quite a gain, because I have long despised this book. When I read it as an undergraduate, my 19 year-old-self found it self-indulgent, overly emotional, and extremely tedious. My 36 year-old-self, I was pleased to discover, is slightly more tolerant and more patient than its younger version. So while I will never truly be a fan of Virginia Woolf--or, for that matter, Modernist Novels in general (excepting Proust) because I still find their experiments in form and self-obsession self-indulgent, over-intellectualized, and bleak, I am happy to report that I also found more to be interested in this go-around.
The things that interested me were the quieter moments of coherent reflection. There's a lot of stream-of-consciousness in this book, in which the perspective lists feelings and impressions of cars and flowers and passers-by that don't do all that much for me; the strongest moments, I feel (and I say in my best curmudgeonly growl), come less from the showier techniques and more from good, old-fashioned moments of plot juxtaposed with sustained scenes of coherent reflection, and I rather wonder if part of my preference isn't generational in that the postmodern films, television, and literature I have grown up with have mastered a variety of techniques that signal to the audience when and where they are supposed to be more purposefully oriented--or disoriented--as the occasion and thematic constraints demand. The more fragmented moments, fragments that function sometimes to break up phrases and sentences, not just paragraphs or sections, seem more formal and self-conscious than they convey a mimetic impression of the unconscious at work, as I believe is the intention.
Or perhaps I am a philistine, which is a possibility I've long entertained. But there it is. If I learned one thing from this book, it's that one is happier embracing who one is than resisting it.

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08/18/08

Choupette rated it:

bookshelves: 1001-books, classics, conceptual, to-be-re-read

Read in November, 2008

recommends it for: le monde

I loved this book, but not quite as much as I was hoping. The stream of consciousness style Woolf uses is brilliantly expressive and I was constantly surprised by how clearly she used it to portray character. The likenening of her style to that of the cinema (panning from character to character, moving in for a close-up, then moving on; as well as the use of techniques such as flashbacks and montages) mentioned in the introduction struck me as very apt. Clarissa Dalloway's dauntless vivacity and...more I loved this book, but not quite as much as I was hoping. The stream of consciousness style Woolf uses is brilliantly expressive and I was constantly surprised by how clearly she used it to portray character. The likenening of her style to that of the cinema (panning from character to character, moving in for a close-up, then moving on; as well as the use of techniques such as flashbacks and montages) mentioned in the introduction struck me as very apt. Clarissa Dalloway's dauntless vivacity and unstoppable vitality, despite her feelings of inadequacy and occasionally moments of dissatisfaction, were perfectly portrayed. On the other hand, Richard's more staid simplicity of thought and action was immediately clear.

And how can anyone not love a book written with such use of punctuation! - I say bring back the double punctuation mark. Few things are so expressive. The key to Woolf's prose, I believe, lies in her use of punctuation to mediate the rhythm of her sentences, and all of a sudden it's completely clear why this technique is called 'stream of consciousness' - it all comes out, in a long stream, as water, with the rises and falls and cadences and tones dictated by, you guessed it, punctuation.

It's incredibly easy to read because it is so much like thought, so it flows like thought through the mind. The flip-side of this, though, is that it was so easy to read that my mind kept wandering off and I would realise I had been reading for pages and pages without taking in a single word. Furthermore, the excessive use of commas, while beautiful, was sometimes confusing. Tant pis, I say, style over practicality every day!

Here is a sample of prose. It's a famous one, and with reason, because it's brilliant:

"For Heaven only knows why one loves it so, how one sees it so, making it up, building it round one, tumbling it, creating it every moment afresh; but the veriest frumps, creating it every moment afresh; but the veriest frumps, the most dejected of miseries sitting on doorsteps (drink their downfall) do the same; can't be dealt with, she felt positive, by Acts of Parliament for that very reason: they love life. In people's eyes, in the swing, tramp, and trudge; in the bellow and the uproar; the carriages, motor cars, omnibuses, vans, sandwich men shuffling and swinging; brass bands; barrel organs; in the trumph and the jingle and the strange high singing of some aeroplane overhead was what she loved; life; London; this moment of June."

Such joy, such vitality! But really, there are so many beautiful passages to choose from.

In terms of content, as opposed to language, I've read a little about a few interpretations of this work that I like very much. One is the idea of Mrs Dalloway being like a cubist painting (the cubism movement was active in art around that time); showing the same event from many different perspectives. This is linked to the idea of the novel being about the threads of thought between people; how they rarely intersect, and true connections rarely succeed (I suspect I like this because it is a little Chekhovian). The different perspectives on life offered by each the characters the narrative brushes against are so different as to be virtually irreconcilable; it is a bit depressing to be shown so clearly the gulfs that exist between people; how can we ever hope to form a meaningful relationship with anyone when we are so different? Yet the book ends on a positive note: Clarissa's ultimate affinity, even understanding, of Septimus Warren Smith breaks through the barriers of class, gender and situation, offering some hope for human interaction.

In a mostly-irrelevant aside, reading this suddenly makes Michael Cunningham's The Hours a whole lot clearer. I wasn't expecting to enjoy Mrs Dalloway as much, but DAMN I love it. I must read it again soon.(less)

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03/20/08

Jess Wisloski rated it:

Read in March, 2008

recommends it for: Everyone

Mrs. Dalloway is not by title alone enough to intrigue me - it was the movie The Hours that even made me want to look at anything by Virginia Woolf. I had seen the movie, 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf' but that didn't really do it for me either. After the Hours, I picked up the book, and it promptly sat on my shelf after a half-baked attempt to read it ended within the first few pages.

Its flow, the rhythm, threw me off at first. My brain is easily distracted, and the book's prose ...more

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02/10/08

Saman added it (review of isbn 9643513947)

bookshelves: novel

خانم دالوي گفت خودش گلها را مي‌خرد
براي اين كه لوسي ترتيب بقيه‌ي كارها را مي‌داد. درها را از چارچوب‌ها بيرون مي‌آوردند؛ قرار بود كارگرهاي رامپلبري بيايند. كلاريسا دالاوي فكر كرد از اين گذشته عجب صبحي است - آنقدر تر و تازه است كه انگار آن را در ساحل براي بچه‌ها نقاشي كرده�...more خانم دالوي گفت خودش گلها را مي‌خرد
براي اين كه لوسي ترتيب بقيه‌ي كارها را مي‌داد. درها را از چارچوب‌ها بيرون مي‌آوردند؛ قرار بود كارگرهاي رامپلبري بيايند. كلاريسا دالاوي فكر كرد از اين گذشته عجب صبحي است - آنقدر تر و تازه است كه انگار آن را در ساحل براي بچه‌ها نقاشي كرده‌اند

***************************

بين خوانندگان پر و پاقرص و علاقه‌مند به آثار ويرجينياوولف و منتقدان بر سر اين كه در بين سه كتاب: به سوي فانوس دريايي، خانم دالوي و موج‌ها كدام يك اثر برتر اين نويسنده است اختلاف نظر فراواني است. آناني كه نثر شاعرانه او را مي‌پسندند كتاب موج‌ها را برمي‌گزينند. آن‌هايي كه نثر رئال او را مي‌پسندد خانم دالاوي را و به سوي فانوس دريايي نيز در بين اين دو كتاب جاي دارد

به هر حال اين كتاب خانم دالاوي جزو آثار برتر و بسيار مطرح اين نويسنده است و الهام‌بخش مايكل كانينگهام براي كتاب ساعت‌ها
البته فيلمي نيز بر همين اساس ساخته شد با بازي نيكول كيدمن، مريل استريپ، جوليان مور و اد هريس و نيكول كيدمن اسكار خود را براي بازي در اين فيلم كسب كرد

در حاشيه اين كه، مدير دوبله‌ي فارسي اين فيلم، مرحوم خانم ژاله كاظمي بودند كه مدير دوبلاژي اين فيلم، جزو كارهاي آخر عمر ايشان بود و به جاي صداي "نيكول كيدمن" صحبت كردند و جزو آثار ماندگار ايشان شد
مثل صداي "اليزابت تيلور" در فيلم "گربه روي شيرواني داغ" و يا صداي اين بازيگر در فيلم " چه كسي از ويرجينيا وولف مي‌ترسد
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11/25/07

Michael rated it:

I've got to hand it to the English teachers, they sure know how to pick 'em. An unprecedented 5 consecutive novels with no plot. This one's just as boring as Devil on the Cross and just as Cryptic as Zamyatin's We.

Some may praise the stream of consciousness as brilliant and innovative but it really just makes the text as undesirable of a read as possible. All of the characters are hypocritical and bland, and develop absolutely no sympathy. There is absolutely no plot, for a book tha...more

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12/23/07

Jason rated it:

bookshelves: modernism

Read in May, 2008

It's not often that a sentence or two from a book will tell you very much, but I think the following passage should tell you right away whether you will like this book.

Like a woman who had slipped off her print dress and white apron to array herself in blue and pearls, the day changed, put off stuff, took gauze, changed to evening, and with the same sigh of exhilaration that a woman breathes, tumbling petticoats on the floor, it too shed dust, heat, colour; the traffic thinned; motor...more It's not often that a sentence or two from a book will tell you very much, but I think the following passage should tell you right away whether you will like this book.

Like a woman who had slipped off her print dress and white apron to array herself in blue and pearls, the day changed, put off stuff, took gauze, changed to evening, and with the same sigh of exhilaration that a woman breathes, tumbling petticoats on the floor, it too shed dust, heat, colour; the traffic thinned; motor cars, tinkling, darting, succeeded the lumber of vans; and here and there among the thick foliage of the squares an intense light hung. I resign, the evening seemed to say, as it paled and faded above the battlements and prominences, moulded, pointed, of hotel, flat, and block of shops, I fade, she was beginning, I disappear, but London would have none of it, and rushed her bayonets into the sky, pinioned her, constrained her to partnership in her revelry.

Most of Mrs. Dalloway reads like this section. It’s more poetry than prose, and it’s not for everybody. If you enjoyed this idiosyncratic description of a summer sunset, then you will love Mrs. Dalloway. If you’d rather read a book that just gets to the point, then it’s probably not the book for you. For those who love language and enjoy finding new, unorthodox manners of expression, Mrs. Dalloway is a great introduction to Virgina Woolf’s unique voice.

Mrs. Dalloway does not have much in the way of a plot. You would never read it for that. On its face, the book is just about an upper-class turn-of-the-century woman preparing for an uppity dinner party for London’s elite. But in this one seemingly blasé day, Woolf takes the reader into the minds and lives of some half dozen characters and gives full expression to their memories and fantasies.

In a way, the unusual form is more realistic than the traditional novel. The average day of a person’s life is far more than the sum of its extrinsic events. The human mind lives a lifetime in each day, and somehow Woolf manages to portray the relationship between time and human consciousness far better than a simple chronological story-telling ever could. At one point, one of the characters says/thinks something like “We make up the better part of our lives,” and that thought captures the essence of Mrs. Dalloway main idea quite well.

The main problem with Mrs. Dalloway, and perhaps it’s really a strength, is that Clarissa Dalloway is simply not very likable. I know there is a realism here that I should appreciate, but I just wanted to love her more. She seemed so petty compared to the lesser characters and at times even clueless. I found the characters in To the Lighthouse much more compelling, but that’s a tougher read. If you’re interested in Virginia Woolf, I suggest starting with Mrs. Dalloway to get a sense of what she’s all about. Then read To the Lighthouse for her best.
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12/06/07

Karl Steel rated it:

(review of isbn 0156030357)

bookshelves: books_i_taught

Read in December, 2007

Most astonishing this time round was the anticipation in Woolf of the not-yet-existing Frankfurt school. Famously (so far as I know: I'm boning up on it this summer), the Frankfurt school discovered links between rationalism, positivism, and state violence; WWI and, later, fascism were not (or at least not simply) negations of the Enlightenment, but part of the same. With that in mind, reread Walsh and Richard Dalloway and their civilized, cynical pose toward Empire and its great projects, rerea...more

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10/08/07

Ajeya rated it:

(review of isbn 0156628708)

Read in April, 2004

May Favorite book by my Favorite author Virginia Woolf.

Mrs. Dalloway is a story of one woman in a single day of her life. The novel opens with the first sentence - "Mrs. Dalloway said she shall buy the flowers herself." - Shows, so much of brightness, so much of hope, so much of possibility.

And then the lady walks past the Bond Street, London, and as she observes every thing that happens there, slowly the author shapes her character and her state of mind.
...more

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09/20/07

Laura rated it:

(review of isbn 0156030357)

bookshelves: 642-woolf-fall-07

Read in September, 2007

Living up to the name Woolf assigned to the manuscript version - "The Hours," Mrs. Dalloway delves into the souls of several 1920s Londoners - each of varying socioeconomic backgrounds - in the course of one day. With Big Ben marking the time, the narrator follows Mrs. Dalloway as she plans a dinner party and encounters old friends, lovers, and memories. Not all these meetings are happy, however, and through the strangely prophetic character, Septimus Smith, the narrator offers gli...more

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05/23/09

Lazarus P Badpenny Esq rated it:

(review of isbn 0140622217)

bookshelves: death, england, littlekrakowton-litchat-chit-chat, penguin-modern-classics, stories, twentieth-century

Read in May, 2009

With an unhurried ease the River Ouse passes through the Sussex hillsides meandering it's way to join that stretch of sea which has successfully kept the English geographically aloof from their Continental cousins since before Domesday, even finding time en route for a spot of landscape gardening and to make a number of unscheduled social calls.

It was into this river that on an otherwise uneventful but, nonetheless, unforgiving Spring day during wartime, and having filled her pockets...more

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01/12/08

Faith-Anne rated it:

bookshelves: 2008, modern-literature, my-favorites, virginia-woolf

This is my favorite book. It took me forever to get into Woolf's style, but once I did I fell in love. Every sentence is a work of art. Every paragraph's a poem. It's heat breaking & joyous & so full of life. "Mrs. Dalloway" deserves your full attention when reading it, but it's well worth it! Breathtaking.

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09/11/08

Lavinia rated it:

(review of isbn 0156628708)

bookshelves: 2004-or-older, fiction

Read in January, 2004

I read it quite slowly. I only felt I liked it at the end.

***
am citit-o intr-un ritm destul de lent, nici nu prea cred ca woolf se citeste pe nerasuflate. n-am simtit ca-mi place decit la sfirsit :)

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01/22/09

Maggie marked it as to-read

bookshelves: 2009, to-read, uncle----

Read in January, 2009

Someday, I will finish this book. It's just so bloody mind-numbing!

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11/28/08

Fernando rated it:

Read in January, 2007

recommends it for: Everyone

One of my favorite novels, an outstanding analysis of the mind of a woman, with all her troubles and preoccupations. The exquisite (do I sound snobbish?) language in which it is written kept me reading until the end. Even in buses. It's a beautiful exploration of human feelings, and the way they get mixed up and drive us to unexpected actions. The melancholic feeling that is transmitted from the very first words, one of my favorite opening lines in all the books I've read, is catching and intens...more

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02/04/08

Iris rated it:

(review of isbn 0141182490)

Read in February, 2008

recommended to Iris by: Compulsory, as it happened

Let's start with a semi - mini biography of Virginia Woolf. She was a bit depressed (well, she tried to kill herself twice, and succeeded the second time round), and it's definitely displayed in much of her work. Which can begin to put you down. Why did I read it then, you ask? Simple. Because it's in my syllabus.

The story follows Clarissa Dalloway, a middle - aged lady who likes to give extravagant parties, and is, in fact, hosting one that very evening. Taking place over the course...more

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quotes from this book

"Big Ben struck the half hour. How extraordinary it was, strange, yes, touching, to see the old lady (they had been neighbors ever so many years) move away from the window, as if she were attached to that sound, that string. Gigantic as it was, it had something to do with her. Down, down, into the midst of ordinary things the finger fell making the moment solemn. She was forced, so Clarissa imagined, by that sound, to move, to go - but where? Clarissa tried to follow her as she turned and disappeared, and could still just see her white cap moving at the back of the bedroom. She was still there moving about at the other end of the room. Why creeds and prayers and mackintoshes? when, thought Clarissa, that's the miracle, that's the mystery; that old lady, she meant, whom she could see going from chest of drawers to dressing table. She could still see her. And the supreme mystery, which Kilman might say she had solved, or Peter might say he had solved, but Clarissa didn't believe either of them had the ghost of an idea of solving, was simply this: here was one room, there another. Did religion solve that, or love?" More quotes...