Mrs. Dalloway
Virginia Woolf
1925
Around 200 pages
Virginia Woolf becomes more and more experimental as she ages, which probably has a lot to do with her deteriorating mental state. This is the fourth Woolf novel on the List, and I feel like we are in the sweet spot. She's found her footing as a writer but things haven't become too weird yet.
We were introduced to the minor character Clarissa Dalloway in The Voyage Out, but she is bumped up to protagonist for this gig. The novel takes place in a single day, the day of Clarissa's party in London. She spends the day getting ready and reminiscing about her choices.
I love novels that take place in a single day (though I will bitch about Ulysses until the end of time). I love how she zeroed in on the particular, the everyday actions that make up our existence but novelists never pay much attention to.
And I love getting more queer novels, especially when the writer isn't a pedophile.
RATING: *****
Interesting Facts:
Working title was The Hours.
Often considered a response to James Joyce's Ulysses. Oh honey, you won!
UP NEXT: Manhattan Transfer by John Dos Passos.
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