Title: Mrs. Dalloway
Author: Virginia Woolf
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Harcourt Inc
Publication Date: Original publication 1925, version read was a 2005 annotated copy
Page count: 190

Rating:

Does anyone else have a shamefully large collection of classic literature that they’ve never even attempted to take off of their TBR list? I have a ton of physical copies of books sitting on my shelves either from various English courses or used book sales that I’ve never cracked the covers on. It seemed a shame to let them sit, continuing to gather dust, while I plowed through more modern literature, so I recently committed to reading one classic book a month.

I’ll be the first to admit that just because a book is categorized as a “classic” or a “best book of all time,” that in no way means that I’ll find it enjoyable. When it comes to reading, my tastes can be pretty specific and I’m often drawn to books that might be popular (or might not) but definitely are not going to be found winning a literary award.

That said, I am finding that at bare minimum, I can appreciate why some of these books are such literary feats, and some, despite being way outside of my usual genres, are actually quite enjoyable. Mrs. Dalloway wasn’t my favourite book of all time, but there were moments of it that I found exceptionally meaningful.

Fair warning: spoilers ahead for anyone who hasn’t read this book.

Mrs. Dalloway is a story that follows a day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, an upper-class woman in post-WWI England. Clarissa is preparing for a party in the evening, and the narrative unfolds through a stream of consciousness among a series of characters, including a separate but interwoven narrative around Septimus Smith, a shell-shocked WWI veteran with considerable mental health issues.

I found the stream of consciousness that Woolf used was a really effective way of helping to demonstrate the impact of time on personal perspectives and on life. It was interesting to observe every single train of thought that enters a character’s head and the associated significance that they placed on those thoughts, particularly as time away from the events had reshaped their feelings around the event. There were passages where Clarissa or Peter would be reflecting on a specific moment where it felt really relatable in the way that we tend to analyse what someone said or how they made us feel, adding emotion or meaning where it should be (or sometimes shouldn’t). I felt myself cringe in that “yep, I’ve spiralled like this before” way when a character was particularly anxious or overwhelmed with emotion as they thought through the ramifications of a specific conversation or interaction.

This stream of consciousness style also lent nicely to her examination of aging, an aspect that I’m not sure I would have appreciated as much when I was younger but reading now found to be resonant. There was some exploration from each character on the impact that aging had had on their relationships and lives and general happiness. People inevitably grow and change as they age, but I thought Woolf did a good job of looking at how people can be judgmental of that, particularly in others, but also in ourselves.

The side story of Septimus and his mental health struggles was also a really interesting look into how mental illness was perceived and treated around this era, to devastating effects. You can see that Woolf obviously has some significant mistrust for the medical system as a whole, but there’s no denying that it’s treatment of mental illness in particular was abysmal and ineffective.

There were moments that I really enjoyed this story, moments where I felt a real pull at my emotions by the narrative. I ended up liking this more than I expected to. Format wise, I didn’t love that there weren’t any chapters (though as the book was under 200 pages, it was tolerable), and also didn’t love that the stream of consciousness switched perspectives and characters sometimes within a paragraph. Despite the formatting elements that weren’t for me though, the story itself carried nicely. I was glad to have read it when I finished.