Mrs. Dalloway

Mrs. Dalloway
It took me almost as long to read this novel as it took Virginia Woolf to write it, I had to re-read passages just for the enjoyment of the words. I read it when I was young and didn't get it; it appealed to me much more upon second reading. Of course it's a day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, upper-class politician's wife, who is having a party that evening. It's about choices, roads not taken and lost possibilities. There's the parallel story of shell-shocked WW1 vet, Septimus Smith, who kills himself on the same day. Word of his death insinuates its way into the party and ruins Clarissa's perfect evening.The novel portrays the shallowness of upper-class English society. The first time I thought it was very old-fashioned; this time I was surprised at how modern it is with its stream of consciousness style. No need to say more.