Mrs. Dalloway's Party A Short-Story Sequence

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Mrs. Dalloway's Party A Short-Story Sequence

by Virginia Woolf, Stella McNichol (Introduction)

3.99 · rating details · 136 ratings · 19 reviews

"Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the gloves herself. Big Ben was striking as she stepped out into the street. It was eleven o'clock and the unused hour was fresh as if issued to children on a beach."-from "Mrs. Dalloway in Bond Street"The landmark modern novel Mrs. Dalloway creates a portrait of a single day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway as she orch...more

Paperback, 96 pages

Published January 5th 2004 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (first published March 13th 1923)

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Jan 28, 2011

Elizabeth rated it

Shelves: 2011, books-about-books, in-by-of-england, reviewed, short-stories, virginia-woolf-hogarth-bloomsbury

I should face it; reading anything by Virginia Woolf is risky for me. She mentioned that she's on the third volume of À la recherche du temps perdu and I have to start it right now! Then she asks Lytton Strachey for which edition of Madame de Sévigné's letters to read (along with the Proust, both of which she is reading in French, by the way) and I want to read those, too. Then I realize she wrote and essay on de Sévigné's letters so I go through my ever-growing collection of her books looking ...moreI should face it; reading anything by Virginia Woolf is risky for me. She mentioned that she's on the third volume of À la recherche du temps perdu and I have to start it right now! Then she asks Lytton Strachey for which edition of Madame de Sévigné's letters to read (along with the Proust, both of which she is reading in French, by the way) and I want to read those, too. Then I realize she wrote and essay on de Sévigné's letters so I go through my ever-growing collection of her books looking for it... This doesn't get me any farther in the letters that I'm supposed to be reading. I'm just squandering time.

So I go back to her letters and she mentions the series of short stories that she wrote around Mrs. Dalloway so I go back to my shelves. That I have, at least, and it's only seventy pages, and what does it really matter if I read most of them last year in A Haunted House and Other Short Stories?

Does this happen to anyone else? Do you feel driven to read the little works, the incidentals, the tangential of a favorite author? Not just the ones that she wrote, here and there, but the ones that she read, whether they are great or small works on their own? I don't do it so I understand Woolf better, or, perhaps I should say that's not the only reason. I do it because I am convinced that if she could write so wonderfully and her ideas touch me so deeply, I should to know the authors who ideas influenced her. They must also sparkle, somehow. And, generally, I haven't been disappointed (although I still have no interest in reading Strachey's tomes).

I don't know that this is worth reading unless Mrs. Dalloway reshaped your inner landscape. If you weren't dreaming of pirate ships sailing over the traffic of London and feeling the freedom of standing at the prow (instead of just sitting on the top of the double-decker bus), there's no reason to pick up this book. If Mrs. Dalloway's party was captivating for you, if it was about more than just a bunch of rich, bored people ruing the waste of their lives or eating ices obliviously, then this might be worth the hour it takes to read. Woolf was interested in the "party consciousness" (yes, it was her press that published Freud in England). There is something fascinating and repellent about parties and she's right to be attracted to figuring out whatever that is. She wanted to examine what people were doing and why and this social context is a perfect setting in which to do it.

Since all her characters in these stories are both in the moment: walking in the garden, looking out the window at the moon, being introduced to a "nice young man," and also observing the moment, reflecting on it; I think Woolf was showing us more of herself, intentionally or not. The stories are very much like her description of parties in her letters. She loved and loathed them and even said she preferred to imagine them than actually attend (this isn't true, according to her editors, but she did say it at one point). I can't really help looking at a scene twice when I'm in a party, like Woolf describes in the stories, feeling both inside the room, in the event, and also feeling like an outsider. Since I don't know how other people think, it's comforting to see that in Woolf's stories; it would reassure me more if she hadn't been known for bouts of madness.

It really is a fascinating book. The New Dress, which is in this collection and The Haunted House is one of the best stories I've read by her. The stories are also intimately linked with the novels. One of these describes a woman named Lily who thinks about art and gender relations and why women are not allowed to paint. (Yes, you'll see another character named Lily with similar thoughts in To the Lighthouse, Woolf's next novel). It's almost as if her stories are a sort of literary bridge that crosses from one novel to the next, or perhaps a bridge is too sturdy a structure for such short stories. They are stepping stones across the wide river between the novels, giving me a moment, a safe resting point, as I follow her from one idea to the next. So not time wasted after all.(less)

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Aug 14, 2010

Rachel rated it

Shelves: short-stories

It's been so long since I've "read," officially, for GoodReads that I had to do another! "Mrs. Dalloway's Party" is a collection of short stories (and what was a draft of Chapter One of "Mrs. Dalloway") which Virginia Woolf wrote during and after her most well-known novel. It was bound up and published posthumously, featuring an intro by Woolf historian Stella McNichol.

In the intro, McNichol touched upon Woolf's fascination with parties, perhaps akin t...more

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Feb 21, 2011

Bettie rated it

Shelves: winter-20102011, shortstory-shortstories-novellas, midlife-crisis

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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May 02, 2010

Patricia rated it

Shelves: britain

Some of the stories offer a perspective on the different paths the novel could have taken. The novel is probably sleeker without Mrs. Dalloway wondering whether to buy Cranford for Milly, but I love how she reflects on the episode of the cow in flannel and laments the humor and self-respect(!) that kind of writing embodied.
It's fascinating to follow the alternate routes novel might have taken. But the value of the stories go beyond that. Like her essays and novels, these stories capture "...more

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Jan 17, 2010

Kathy Duncan rated it

Mrs. Dalloway’s Party is a series of thematically linked stories, that can be read as vignettes or as one long party. It the first, “Mrs. Dalloway in Bond Street,” Mrs. Dalloway sallies forth to buy the gloves herself. At age 52, she runs smack into her own mortality on the way to the glove shop. Alarmed, she realizes for the first time that the shop girl is a good twenty years older than the last time Mrs. Dalloway bothered to really look at her, to consider her as a fellow human rathe...more Mrs. Dalloway’s Party is a series of thematically linked stories, that can be read as vignettes or as one long party. It the first, “Mrs. Dalloway in Bond Street,” Mrs. Dalloway sallies forth to buy the gloves herself. At age 52, she runs smack into her own mortality on the way to the glove shop. Alarmed, she realizes for the first time that the shop girl is a good twenty years older than the last time Mrs. Dalloway bothered to really look at her, to consider her as a fellow human rather than as a mere servant worthy of no special consideration. Immediately, Mrs. Dalloway turns away from such dreary considerations to more important concerns: Will the wrong people come to her party while the right people stay away? Will dowdy women with no fashion sense attend? The answer is a resounding yes, yes, yes.

The following stories revolve around the “wrong” people, who accept Mrs. Dalloway’s invitation as almost an afterthought , and the dowdy women, who do not conform to fashion’s dictates. Unabashed, the formidable Mrs. Dalloway plays matchmaker for these individuals. Even though she senses the true nature of each and makes what should be brilliant pairings, her efforts backfire.

Each party attendee secretly feels inferior to the others. Their irrational sense of inferiority stems from such mundane things as their clothing, their small houses, their lack of servants, or their unconventional parents. In reality, each is a fascinating individual of integrity and depth. However, their fear of rejection, of being snubbed in public, is so great that they resort to a defensiveness that renders them insufferable bores. After comparing their secret selves to the false impressions that they have of each other, they each commit the sin of feeling superior. In consequence, they refrain from genuine, revealing discourse. They form quick, superficial opinions of each other and are reduced to insincerity.

In exposing the true nature of each character, Woolf explores estheticism in conflict with humanitarianism, the working poor in conflict with the “well fed, overdressed”, and the corruption of the city in conflict with the purity of Nature. We also witness an “educated” men trivializing the literary aspirations of a woman in the eternal conflict of male and female.

At Mrs. Dalloway’s party, we witness the irrationality of human exchange “filled with pain and pleasure.” Each person in attendance is an island, “excluded from humanity.” As clichéd as it is, each individual is utterly alone in the crowd. Each is “the secluded being, who sits in darkness,” aching to be known, but so afraid of being rebuffed that they offer nothing of their true selves to each other.
(less)

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Sep 02, 2010

Telma rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: classics

Resumo: Um conjunto de 7 contos que Virgínia Woolf escreveu para ilustrar e compreender e servir de apoio ao universo que constitui a festa da Mrs. Dalloway.

Crítica: Este foi o meu primeiro contacto com a escrita de Virginia Woolf e adorei. Tinha receio que ela tivesse uma escrita muito rebuscada ou difícil mas a poesia da sua escrita é maravilhosa. Senti que o seu raciocínio vinha por ondas, começava numa ideia, que puxava para outra e que nos levava a outra ideia, nunca se repetin...more

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Jul 22, 2011

Petra X rated it

Shelves: 2011, fiction, x

Shallow.

I've never been able to see what was so great about Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West, the premiere female authors of the Bloomsbury Set. Two women from the upper class who wrote books about upper class women who did nothing at all except have minor angsts or affairs which they wrote about with excellent powers of description but no introspection at all. The men were different, there were some very great writers amongst them - Lytton Strachey and the wonderful E.M. Forste...more

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Feb 17, 2011

Laura rated it

Shelves: audio-books, short-stories, read-2011

Fascinated and preoccupied by the idea of this social event,Virginia Woolf wrote this story sequence around the same time as writing the novel Mrs Dalloway. In each of these three stories written in Woolf's distinctive style, the listener is offered glimpses into each character's inner most thoughts and emotions. Woolf depicts the intriguing social world of Mrs Dalloway's party in microscopic detail.

This story, 'Mrs Dalloway in Bond Street', follows Mrs Dalloway as she runs errands a...more

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Jan 29, 2012

Liberty June rated it

Shelves: read-for-uni

I've never read anything by Woolf before, but I must say that I enjoy her writing style. I can almost hear my Creative Writing teacher from last summer say how "fine" this writing is, how beautiful those little moments of recognition at the end of most of these short stories are when the characters finally understand something. And I guess I agree with his imaginary comments.

Woolf's narrative technique isn't something you would call conventional though. Her stories pretty m...more

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Apr 20, 2011

Sarah rated it

· review of another edition

Didn't even know this selection of short stories existed before I came upon it at the British Library's shop. I read the whole thing in one go, inspired by the fact I'm staying in Bloomsbury, where Woolf lived and wrote when she was in London. Now I have to go back and read the novel again.

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Feb 18, 2011

Melissa rated it

· review of another edition

A nice compliment to the novel Mrs. Dalloway.

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Jun 13, 2009

Melissa marked it as to-read

Own

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Mar 15, 2011

Paula rated it

Seven stories, a further look into the high society life that makes Mrs. Dalloway's party. Ms Woolf had a fascination with parties and I have a fascination with her fascination. "For a party makes things either much more real or much less real." My favorite story being the longest- written, entirely about one outdated dress.

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Feb 17, 2008

Syd rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: short-stories

This small collection has a very good introduction, explaining the common ties of these stories. The most fascinating part of reading Woolf's short stories is observing her process. She has experimented with writing more than any other author I am familiar with, and her brilliance never ceases to amaze me.

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Feb 03, 2008

Alice Hunt rated it

Virginia Woolf's exercise to prepare her for writing the novel, "Mrs. Dalloway," these stories absolutely explode off the page. If you are interested in gender play and sexual politics, this collection is for you.

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Jul 04, 2007

Yancey Gulley rated it

The short stories that would become Mrs. Dalloway. They give a very interesting insight into the main character her development, both in life and the mind of woolf.

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Nov 13, 2008

Molly (Surrounded By Words) rated it

I read this after I read "The Hours" and it was wonderful. It made "The Hours" so much more moving and made me fall in love with Virginia Woolf.

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Aug 23, 2008

Rikki added it

this is a nice short in depth look into mrs. dalloway's home. From what I remember its lush with description and feels somewhat gossipy.

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Jan 11, 2011

Rachel rated it

Shelves: 3-24-09-finds

damn, i want to read this... and i never read short stories.

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Feb 08, 2012

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Jan 14, 2012

Nenalyzed marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Dec 31, 2011

Sherry Wittman rated it

Jan 25, 2012

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About Virginia Woolf

(Adeline) Virginia Woolf was an English novelist and essayist regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century.

During the interwar period, Woolf was a significant figure in London literary society and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Her most famous works include the novels Mrs Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), and Orlando (1928), and the bo...more

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“...but the root of things, what they were all afraid of saying, was that happiness is dirt cheap. You can have it for nothing. Beauty.” — 3 people liked it

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