Mrs. Dalloway's Party, a Short Story Sequence - (Virginia Woolf Library) by Virginia Woolf (Paperback)

About the Book

The landmark modern novel Mrs. Dalloway creates a portrait of a single day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway as she orchestrates the last-minute details of a grand party. But before Virginia Woolf wrote this masterwork, she explored in a series of fascinating stories a similar revelry in the mental and physical excitement of a party. Wonderfully captivating, the seven stories in Mrs. Dalloway's Party create a dynamic and delightful portrait of what Woolf called "party consciousness."

Book Synopsis

"Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the gloves herself. Big Ben was striking as she stepped out into the street. It was eleven o'clock and the unused hour was fresh as if issued to children on a beach."
-from "Mrs. Dalloway in Bond Street"

The landmark modern novel Mrs. Dalloway creates a portrait of a single day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway as she orchestrates the last-minute details of a grand party. But before Virginia Woolf wrote this masterwork, she explored in a series of fascinating stories a similar revelry in the mental and physical excitement of a party.
Wonderfully captivating, the seven stories in Mrs. Dalloway's Party create a dynamic and delightful portrait of what Woolf called "party consciousness." As parallel expressions of the themes of Mrs. Dalloway, these stories provide a valuable window into Woolf's writing mind and a further testament to her extraordinary genius.

From the Back Cover

"With Mrs. Dalloway Virginia Woolf insisted that a life of errands and party-giving was every bit as viable a subject as any life lived anywhere; and that should any human act in any novel seem unimportant, it has merely been inadequately observed. The novel as an art form has not been the same since."-Michael Cunningham, author of The Hours
The modern novel Mrs. Dalloway creates a vivid portrait of a single day in the life of one woman as she orchestrates the last-minute details of a grand party. But before Virginia Woolf wrote her masterwork, she explored in a series of captivating sketches and stories a similar revelry in the mental and physical excitement of a party. Those seven stories collected here make up a kind of writer's notebook, a dynamic and delightful exploration of what Woolf called "party consciousness." As parallel expressions of the themes of Mrs. Dalloway, these seminal stories provide a valuable window into Woolf 's writing mind-and a further testament to her extraordinary genius.
Virginia Woolf one of the major literary figures of the twentieth century, transformed the art of the novel with such groundbreaking works as Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse. The author of numerous collections of letters, journals, and short stories, she was an admired literary critic and a master of the essay form.

Review Quotes

PRAISE FOR MRS. DALLOWAY
"With Mrs. Dalloway Virginia Woolf insisted that a life of errands and party-giving was every bit as viable a subject as any life lived anywhere; and that should any human act in any novel seem
unimportant, it has merely been inadequately observed. The novel as an art form has not been the same since."-Michael Cunningham, author of The Hours
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