Mrs. Dalloway

By: Virginia Woolf

Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson

Publisher's summary

It is a June day in London in 1923, and the lovely Clarissa Dalloway is having a party. Whom will she see? Her friend Peter, back from India, who has never really stopped loving her? What about Sally, with whom Clarissa had her life’s happiest moment?

Meanwhile, the shell-shocked Septimus Smith is struggling with his life on the same London day.

Luminously beautiful, Mrs. Dalloway uses the internal monologues of the characters to tell a story of inter-war England. With this, Virginia Woolf changed the novel forever.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

Public Domain (P)2010 Naxos AudioBooks

Show more Show less

5 out of 5 stars

By S. Harvester on 03-01-16

Brilliant.

No plot, just one day in the life of Mrs. Dalloway, from twenty points of view. Classic.

Show more Show less

4 out of 5 stars

By J.B. on 04-28-18

Frail Minds for Us to Visit

Mrs. Dalloway, written by, Virginia Woolf, and very well narrated by Juliet Stevenson. In this intriguing visit into 1920's British upper society, places more importance in writing style than contextual plot. As a result, this story has become an important ingredient in twentieth century or modern existential literature.

Ignoring my own introduction that for this book style of writing is more important here than plot, do let me first provide a minimal summary of its plot. Clarissa Dalloway, an upper-class housewife in London, is preparing for a socialite party she will host that evening; and she believes, her place in society will depend upon the success of her affair. The novel is about that day and the party. Overlaying that day of preparation, her really true love returns to London from years spent in the British Raj in India, and an off-plot story of a WWI veteran and his Italian wife as they suffer through his, what we know today as PSTD, post-traumatic stress disorder. That makes for three stories, the social entanglements of the party, the reintroduction of what may have been Mrs. Dalloway’s true love, and the mentally wounded war victim. The three stories do intertwine but in the most delicate manner, helping us better understand the absurdity of Mrs. Dalloway’s life. That absurdity is the object of the book’s communication. How unnecessarily committed we are to . . . well read the book and you will know.

As noted above, the story is not the most intriguing part of the book. Virginia Woolf, writes the novel in a stream of consciousness thought process by her characters. We, as the reader, participate in the mind flow of her characters. Through that process Ms. Woolf permits us to share with her character’s their mental fragilities as humans.

Virginia Woolf’s mother, Julia Stephen, was a celebrated Pre-Raphaelite artist's model. Pre-Raphaelite is anti-mechanistic and pro presentation of the genuine nature of things. I think it is safe to say, Mr. Woolf inherited her genre from her mother. Ms. Woolf, succeeds with excellence. I have never read anyone who better paints a more colorful and imaginary painting of her character’s thinking. One actually ‘sees’ the novel in impressionistic portraits.

She attacks the same social milieu as does Ernest Hemingway in The Sun Also Rises, but is more poetic with her writing than Hemingway's simple (but thought provoking) prose. Perhaps her work reaches toward James Joyce’s style but much easier to read.

Overall, not a bad read, undoubtedly Woolf was a genius in dissection of our social world, and a gifted writer; but her story and its overall effect was, well just so – so.

Show more Show less

3 out of 5 stars

By Louise on 08-21-17

For a groundbreaking type of book, a bit dull

I just listened and was perplexed. I suppose it was simply a statement about the community at the time. yawn.

Show more Show less