Next Up: Mrs. Dalloway
On the surface, Mrs. Dalloway is a book that I’m not sure I will enjoy. A story about a day in the life of a woman hosting a party? Lord help me. Unless she’s hosting a Super Bowl party, this one doesn’t really seem up my alley.
I couldn’t have timed this worse. The NCAA tournament starts today, and I’m reading Mrs. Dalloway? Seriously? What was I thinking? Why couldn’t I have gone with Hemingway?
But, as I did with Gone With The Wind, I intend to put my biases aside, as best I can (I’m sure you’re buying that), and give this book a fair shot. After all, it is written by Virginia Woolf, who is widely regarded as one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. Mrs. Dalloway is her signature work.
Here are your quick facts about Book #13: Mrs. Dalloway:
- First published on May 14, 1925.
- The book largely inspired Michael Cunningham’s book, The Hours, and the movie of the same name, which starred Nicole Kidman as Virginia Woolf.
- In 2009, a first edition copy of Mrs. Dalloway (in a rare dust jacket) auctioned for $18,000.
- Woolf was a prolific writer. She wrote 9 novels and more than a dozen nonfiction books, including A Room of One’s Own.
- Woolf’s husband, Leonard, owned the publisher that released Mrs. Dalloway. And in 1919, he turned down the opportunity to publish James Joyce’s Ulysses because of obscenity laws in England.
- After suffering from years of severe depression, Woolf took her own life on March 28, 1941. As dramatized in the The Hours, she put on her overcoat, filled it with rocks, walked into the River Ouse, and drowned.
If you’ve read Mrs. Dalloway, tell me I’ll be okay. I am not looking forward to this.
/Mrs. Dalloway/ has been called one of the greatest anti-war novels. It’s one of my favorite books. I’ll look forward to hearing your take on it. Cheers!
If this is your first Virginia Woolf book, you’re in for an incredible treat.
MRS. DALLOWAY is a phenomenal read, and her inventive use of language and psychology can be devastatingly beautiful.
I read TO THE LIGHTHOUSE earlier this year and loved it.
( http://emilymkeeler.wordpress.com/2011/01/31/to-the-lighthouse/ )
After you’ve read it, you might want to check out Jonah Lehr’s discussion of how Woolf anticiapted a few ideas onthe way the brain works that neuroscience has recently discovered in one chapter of his book PROUST WAS A NEUROSCIENTIST.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!
I don’t have a lot of experience with Virginia Woolf – she’s one of those authors that I want to read and like, but she makes me feel sort of like I’m sitting in a boat that’s rocking back and forth – sometimes gently, sometimes hard enough to turn in another direction and become disoriented – narrative with poetic outbursts, so the language use is interesting, but sometimes I have to struggle to keep the thread.
That’s the feeling I’m getting as well. I’m about halfway into it, and I keep losing focus. Honestly, I’m not a fan at this point. I could get burned at the stake for saying that.
I read this book last year and enjoyed it. It is interesting in many ways but I found my self comparing it to “The Hours” more than I perhaps should have done.
Hi, I’m new to the neighborhood- so glad I found your blog.
NCAA and Mrs. Dalloway? Just feed the baby while watching/reading, and holy crap, I think we’ve got the perfect man.
Haha. My guess is that Mrs. Dalloway and NCAA basketball have never been mentioned in the same sentence. All about breaking barriers.
You’ll be okay. Your timing with March Madness is actually good. All the long Woolf run on sentences will balance out the exciting fast action of baskets being scored in the final seconds of a game played with the heart.
One piece of advice: get comfortable and try to read it in one sitting. It’s like canned root beer vs. root-beer-stand root beer: still good in multiple readings, but better in a hard-to-define way if read in one sitting.
What I remember the most about reading Mrs. Dalloway (which I read for 20th Century English Lit, or some college Literature class like that) is BEGGING for a period. I went back and re-read so many long sentences, I wanted to proofread the book and try again. While they aren’t technically run-on sentences, they are nerve racking to me. I don’t enjoy the one page sentence…at all.
Once I could figure out what was happening, I liked the book. The language is poetic in places, the characters are complex, and even though we don’t plan dinner parties with this much drama and organizational paroxysms, I felt like I knew exactly what Mrs. Dalloway felt.
Hey Robert!
I don’t know if “Gone with the Wind” is on this Time list or not, but you have to read it because, well, you just have to. (I make shameless plugs for this novel all the time…*shifty eyes*)
My name is Mary, and I’m completely new to the whole WordPress community, but I saw your post about Jonathan Franzen featured on the front page, and I was like WHOA, I have to check this guy out. I’ve read several posts in your blog, and I’m definitely glad I stopped by!
Mrs. Dalloway–never read it, definitely need to try it. I’ve gotten mixed reviews from both sides, but I tend to favor giving books a chance.
What’s been your favorite book so far?
Have a great day, and it was wonderful to meet you!
I am a Woolf fan, so I secretly hope you enjoy it. However, I think it is helpful to approach her as though you are reading philosophy. She is a bit difficult to read, but she improves greatly on re-reading (which I highly recommend). In fact, I don’t think I really enjoy her books until the 2nd or 3rd read–so many layers. Reading The Hours after reading Mrs. Dalloway is a unique treat.
I love this novel and although I love a good Austen novel now and then I favor more masculine writing. But take this book for absurdity that is in it. I personally favored the stream of conscience that is in this novel. Enjoy.
Hi, I’m new to WordPress and so glad I came across this blog. Also, I subscribed to 101 Books. Sorry for the question, but is this blog only about “fiction”? Just curious.
Yep. Fiction only. All from Time’s list. Click on “the list’ at the top of the page. Thanks for checking out my blog!
I haven’t read “Mrs. Dalloway,” but it’s on my wish list. I did read the first volume of Woolf’s diaries and the biography written by her nephew, and they were both fantastic. I’m looking forward to your thoughts on this one.
I loved Mrs. Dalloway. I didn’t think I was going to but I just thought it was amazing. The person who gave me the book as a gift had said that it was Virginia Woolf’s response to Ulysses. I’m not certain if that is true, but it sounded interesting. Regardless her impetus, I really loved the book.
Well I’m interested to hear how you get on with this.
I tried to read Mrs Dalloway a year or so back and I didn’t get very far. I really wanted to like it, and started out with high hopes, but I got about half way through, and it seemed to be going no where. Maybe I’m just a literary heathen.
Read this book years ago, after the movie release of The Hours. It’s so good! I’ll admit, you have to follow the prose carefully at times, but the language is so beautiful. Great story.
I haven’t read this but have always wanted to. I read instead “A Room of One’s Own,” which I loved (I still remember that a woman artist should have 500 pounds a year and a room of one’s own), and “Orlando,” which I thought was weird when I read it back in university. That being said, I always appreciated Woolf’s facility with language. I’ll look forward to reading your full review.
I wonder what a back to back reading of Mrs. Dalloway and “On the Road” would be like…?!
Mrs. Dalloway and the On The Road? Wow. That would mess with me. That might be like reading Hemingway and Margaret Mitchell back to back.
This was not my favorite either, and I am a girl. To be honest, there didn’t seem to be much happening at all.
I think I am also like an earlier commentator who preferred more masculine writing. I would love to read your thoughts on it though.