Mrs. Dalloway

About the book

Clarissa Dalloway spends a June Wednesday in 1925 London purchasing flowers and preparing her home for an evening gala. As she traverses the city, the narrative shifts between her internal monologues and those of Septimus Smith, a veteran suffering from terminal shell shock. The story tracks Clarissa’s reflections on her youthful rejection of Peter Walsh and her marriage to Richard Dalloway, a member of Parliament. Simultaneously, it documents Septimus’s mental collapse and eventual suicide, framing his death as a counterpoint to the rigid social hierarchies and political stability Clarissa represents.

Readers interested in the evolution of modern consciousness and the lingering psychological damage of the Great War will find this a precise study of human interiority. It attracts those who value detailed observations of social class and the non-linear way memory interrupts present actions. The reader gains an understanding of how individual identity is constructed through fragmented thoughts and how public facades mask private trauma. It provides a stark look at the isolation inherent in high society and the failure of medical institutions to address mental illness.

Details

Published

1925

Publisher

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

ISBN

9780151009985

Language

EN