Book Review: ‘Mrs Dalloway’ by Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf’s famous modernist novel Mrs Dalloway takes place during a single day in June 1923. It describes the thoughts and memories of a large cast of characters, flipping almost seamlessly, occasionally bewilderingly, between one mind and the next. The effect is kaleidoscopic and mesmerising.

The eponymous Mrs Dalloway is a fashionable society figure, married to a Conservative M.P., who is due to host a high-class party that evening. Other characters include her daughter, husband, friends, acquaintances, her daughter’s born-again Christian tutor, and a shell-shocked war veteran and his Italian wife. It’s a novel that’s almost impossible to describe; you just need to read it.

I first read Mrs Dalloway when I was 25 years old. The next time I read it, I was 49. By my third reading, I was 61. It’s one of those novels that improves as you get older, when you can better appreciate the recurring themes of the passage of time and reflections on former lives.

I continue to enjoy this novel a great deal.