September 6

Mrs Dalloway (1925)

By Virginia Woolf

This novel takes place during the course of a single day.  The bongs of Big Ben mark each hour.  In post-war London, Clarissa Dalloway, happily married and 50-ish, looks forward to hosting a dinner party.  She shops for flowers in the morning, walking through the park, thinking about her life as a young woman and remembering her first love, Peter Marsh.  She spots a young man who suffers shell shock.  Later in the story, it turns out he has committed suicide (but she is not, after all, her brother's keeper,  and he is from a lower social class).  When Clarissa returns home, who should show up at her door but Peter Marsh?  Turns out he is about to marry, as soon as his young girlfriend can get a divorce.  Clarissa seems to have mixed feelings about Peter's news.  Peter comes to her party, as does a Dr Bradshaw, a psychiatrist who announces that one of his patients has committed suicide.  There's a lot to think about here, and one reading is not enough.

This short novel is a story of class lines, the aftermath of war, aging, women's roles, etc - much fruit for thought.