Product Description

'Fear no more the heat of the sun.' Mrs Dalloway, Virginia Woolf's fourth novel, offers the reader an impression of a single June day in London in 1923. Clarissa Dalloway, the wife of a Conservative member of parliament, is preparing to give an evening party, while the shell-shocked Septimus Warren Smith hears the birds in Regent's Park chattering in Greek. There seems to be nothing, except perhaps London, to link Clarissa and Septimus. She is middle-aged and prosperous, with a sheltered happy life behind her; Smith is young, poor, and driven to hatred of himself and the whole human race. Yet both share a terror of existence, and sense the pull of death. The world of Mrs Dalloway is evoked in Woolf's famous stream of consciousness style, in a lyrical and haunting language which has made this, from its publication in 1925, one of her most popular novels.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #89258 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-17
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Customer Reviews

Superb edition
This superb edition by David Bradshaw of Woolf's most popular novel offers the reader a fresh look at the importance of localised detail in a story so embedded in the topography of London. In the past Woolf scholarship has tended to concentrate on her narrative technique and aesthetic manifesto. Bradshaw instead insists on focussing upon her engagement with society and, as is common with most of his work on Woolf, demonstrates to us her complex relationship to issues ranging from the effects of new technology on the early twentieth century to the consideration of class and political power in the aftermath of the First World War. A must-buy for any student of this important work.

Bradshaw scores again!
Wow, that Bradshaw knows how to write an introduction. The novel is of course a masterpiece, but everyone literate knew that already. One buys THIS edition for the introduction and the notes. Bradshaw writes like a duck on elastic. And so cheap too!

Classic Modernist Writing
Mrs Dalloway is critically regarded as one of the quintessential exemplars of both stream-of-consciousness writing and the ethos of the Modernist era. Stylistically stunning, the innovative narrative follows a day in the life of protagonist Clarissa Dalloway, an aristocratic socialite struggling to find meaning and contentment in post-war London. Juxtaposed with her, Septimus Warren Smith, a shell-shocked combatant attempting to readjust to life after war, struggling with the difficulties of a fractured mind and a creeping madness which threatens to destroy him.

The narrative voice flits effortlessly between the many characters, blending their thoughts, memories and perceptions in order to provide an insight into the psychological processes of a disillusioned generation attempting to restore normality after fundamental assumptions about reality and human nature have been shattered by conflict.

This is a beautifully crafted novel, a deceptively quick and easy read despite the rich narrative structure and content, and a must-read for all those interested in Modernist literature.

Everyone will enjoy this book: for its characters, its story and its vivid descriptions of post-war London. Moreover, for Modernist scholars it provides an exquisite example of the narrative innovation which characterises early 20th century writing.