Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Part of BBC’s “100 Stories that shaped the World” list, I thought it would be fun to keep track of all the works I have read that are listed.
My first conscious experience with the great Virginia Woolf’s works (previous to this novel was an excerpt of A Room of One’s Own for a class I took; I wish I could have read it in its entirety back then). As so often with classic British literature, this novel was assigned reading for an undergrad English course I took about 9 years ago. I can’t remember the name of the course, but I remember quite vividly looking at my schedule and realizing I had about two days to read the entire book in order to have enough time to write a paper on it, which was discussing the imagery of flowers in this novel and others assigned readings. After my lectures and my shift at work were over I made my way upstairs in the student centre on campus, found a couch and started reading…I read for hours without washroom or water breaks. I was transported into the world of Woolf’s character Mrs. Dalloway and 1920’s London. I finished the book the next day and when I closed it for the last time, looked up and took in my surroundings I was convinced that Woolf had put a spell on me.
Woolf’s ability to create and describe human conflict, internal and external, her skill in bringing characters to life and almost let the story narrate itself is a rare and precious gift for an author and true writer of humanity to have.
Overall, it has been probably 10 years since I read Mrs. Dalloway and the mention of the title still gives me chills. I have heard people say To The Lighthouse is a must read and I might add that so is this one. I highly recommend it.
