Mrs. Dalloway

In this vivid portrait of a single day in a woman's life, Mrs. Clarissa Dalloway is preoccupied with the last-minute details of preparation for a party while in her mind she is something much more than a perfect society hostess. As she readies her house for friends and neighbors, she is flooded with remembrances of the past--the passionate loves of her carefree youth, her practical choice of husband, and the approach and retreat of war. And, met with the realities of the present, Clarissa reexamines the choices that brought her there, hesitantly looking ahead to the unfamiliar work of growing old.

From the introspective Clarissa, to the lover who never fully recovered from her rejection, to a war-ravaged stranger in the park, the characters and scope of Mrs. Dalloway reshape our sense of ordinary life and reshaped English literature as we know it.

"Perhaps her masterpiece...Exquisite and superbly constructed...Required like most writers to choose between the surface and the depths as the basis of her operations, she chooses the surface and then burrows in as far as she can." -E. M. Forster

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Published Jan 5, 2021

240 pages

Average rating: 6.97

190 RATINGS

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Readers say *Mrs. Dalloway* is a richly layered, innovative novel praised for its deep character development and stream-of-consciousness style, reveal...

Cynthia M.

Mar 28, 2026

6/10 stars

Virginia Woolf is an author I loved. "Mrs. Dalloway" is a novel that follows Clarissa's thoughts on a single day in London. It has no real plot, but captures the mind's flow and the small daily dramas. It made me reflect on time and solitude.

DaileyBean

Jan 28, 2026

Also read The Hours/crossover

Madeline M Murdock

Dec 01, 2025

8/10 stars

This wasn't my favorite British literature book, but I still enjoyed it. I love how Woolf writes and creates beautiful pictures with her words. I also love Clarrisa as a character in this book. This book has reminded me to enjoy the good and the bad things in life.

Amanda Williamson

Nov 29, 2024

8/10 stars

With the help of Spark Notes, I was able to turn the rating of this novel from a 3 to a 4 star. It's really unlike any book I've ever read. Despite being considered one of the "great classics", it's decades before its time. In it topics like suicide and same-sex love are discussed - not quite the norm for a novel published in 1925.

The internal demons that Mrs. Woolf suffered herself gives this novel so many layers to peel through. Knowing that she committed suicide herself will go a long way in your own reading, if you're just picking it up. (In 1941, the beginning of WWII, at the start of another breakdown she feared would be permanent, Woolf placed a large stone in her pocket to weigh herself down and drowned herself in the River Ouse.)

I encourage you to take the time to read through something like SparkNotes while you're reading this. There really is so much depth to this novel that it's hard to delve in deep enough on your own and fully appreciate the book as it deserves.

a c

Nov 18, 2024

8/10 stars

I dig the use of stream-of-consciousness narrative (though not all the time since it requires more brain cells and constant attention) and I have been enjoying reading recent releases which utilizes this style. NOW the GOAT of stream-of-consciousness narrative didn’t disappoint. I loved how Woolf utilized even the inner thoughts of minor characters to create a more well-rounded novel. It also made the book thematically richer and provided greater depth to the overall portrayal. I also appreciated how Woolf incorporated elements from her own life and experiences to scaffold some of the characters' actions, particularly the undertones of death.