Mrs Dalloway

Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf is one of the masterpieces of modernist fiction — a novel that unfolds over a single day in London, following Clarissa Dalloway as she prepares for a party while her past circles around her, and Septimus Warren Smith as he struggles with the trauma of the First World War. Woolf’s pioneering use of stream of consciousness allows the novel to move fluidly between minds, times, and emotional registers, creating a portrait of consciousness in motion that was unlike anything previously attempted in fiction. The parallel stories of Clarissa and Septimus reflect on each other, making Mrs Dalloway simultaneously a comedy of manners, a meditation on grief and mental illness, and a political novel about the costs of war. Published in a beautiful new edition, this is essential Woolf.