Mrs Dalloway

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Lore & Background

The novel originated from two short stories, "Mrs Dalloway in Bond Street" and the unfinished "The Prime Minister". In autumn 1922, Woolf began to think of the "Mrs Dalloway" short story as the first chapter of her new novel, and she completed the manuscript in late autumn 1924. The working title of Mrs Dalloway was The Hours. Clarissa Dalloway goes around London in the morning, getting ready to host a party that evening. The nice day reminds her of her youth spent in the countryside in Bourton and makes her wonder about her choice of husband; she had married the reliable, successful Richard Dalloway instead of the enigmatic and demanding Peter Walsh. She "had not the option" to be with a female romantic interest, Sally Seton. Peter reintroduces these conflicts by paying a visit that morning. Septimus Warren Smith, a First World War veteran suffering from deferred traumatic stress, spends his day in the park with his Italian-born wife Lucrezia. Septimus is visited by frequent and indecipherable hallucinations, mostly concerning his dear friend Evans, who died in the war. As a result of his involuntary commitment to a psychiatric hospital he takes his own life by jumping out of a window. The novel ends with Clarissa hearing about Septimus's suicide at the party and gradually coming to admire this stranger's act, which she considers an effort to preserve the purity of his happiness.

Reader's Guide

Mrs Dalloway is an example of stream of consciousness storytelling: every scene closely tracks the momentary thoughts of a particular character. Woolf blurs the distinction between direct and indirect speech throughout the novel, freely alternating her mode of narration between omniscient description, indirect interior monologue, and soliloquy. The narration follows at least twenty characters in this way, but the bulk of the novel is spent with Clarissa Dalloway, Peter Walsh, and Septimus Smith. The novel addresses the nature of time in personal experience through multiple interwoven stories. Big Ben towers over the city of London and rings for each half-hour, reminding characters of the loss of life to time. In October 2005, Mrs Dalloway was included on Time magazine's list of the 100 best English-language novels written since its first issue in 1923. Mrs Dalloway is commonly thought to be a response to James Joyce's Ulysses, as both novels use the stream of consciousness technique to follow the thoughts of two characters during one day in a bustling city.

Did You Know?

• The working title of Mrs Dalloway was The Hours.
• The novel originated from two short stories, 'Mrs Dalloway in Bond Street' and the unfinished 'The Prime Minister'.
• Woolf completed the manuscript in late autumn 1924.
• In October 2005, Mrs Dalloway was included on Time magazine's list of the 100 best English-language novels written since its first issue in 1923.
• The character of Clarissa Dalloway was based on Kitty Lushington.

Origins & Composition

Mrs Dalloway began life under a different name. Virginia Woolf's working title for the project was "The Hours." The novel did not emerge fully formed; rather, it grew out of two earlier short pieces — "Mrs Dalloway in Bond Street" and an unfinished story called "The Prime Minister." By autumn 1922, Woolf had begun reconceiving the Bond Street sketch not as a standalone vignette but as the opening chapter of something larger. She labored on the manuscript through the following years, finally completing it in late autumn 1924. The finished book reached readers on 14 May 1925.

Narrative Architecture & Technique

Woolf structures the novel around a single London day, yet the story constantly leaps forward and backward through memory, using an interior perspective that follows characters' thoughts rather than external action. The narration employs a stream-of-consciousness style, weaving together multiple interwoven storylines so that Clarissa's party preparations, Septimus's time in the park, and Peter Walsh's morning visit all orbit the same temporal axis. The central concern is the nature of time as it is lived in personal experience — not clock time, but the way a pleasant morning triggers a recollection of Bourton, or a stranger's suicide reframes a decade of choices. By refusing linear chronology, Woolf constructs a portrait of inter-war social structure from the inside out.

The Two Lives That Converge

The novel's emotional engine is the parallel between two lives that never intersect. Clarissa Dalloway, fifty-one, spends her morning preparing to host an evening party while contemplating whether she made the right choice in marrying the dependable Richard rather than the restless Peter Walsh, or in surrendering her youthful passion for Sally Seton. Across the city, Septimus Warren Smith, a decorated veteran haunted by shell shock and hallucinations of his dead friend Evans, drifts through the park with his Italian wife Lucrezia, who endures loneliness and the judgment of others. Their worlds collide only in death: Clarissa learns of Septimus's suicide — his leap from a window after his involuntary commitment to a psychiatric hospital overseen by Sir William Bradshaw — while her gathering is in full swing. Rather than recoiling, she comes to admire what she reads as his effort to preserve the purity of his happiness, and she recognizes a kinship with this stranger she has never met.

Enduring Legacy & Critical Standing

Though first published on 14 May 1925, Mrs Dalloway has sustained a powerful presence in the literary canon. In October 2005, Time magazine selected it for its list of the one hundred best English-language novels written since the magazine's first issue in 1923. The book's lasting resonance lies in its formal innovation: the stream-of-consciousness narration, the interwoven storylines, and the treatment of time as a subjective, personal experience rather than a linear sequence. Mrs Dalloway is commonly thought to be a response to James Joyce's Ulysses. Woolf herself, writing in 1928, denied any deliberate "method" to the book, saying instead that the structure came about "without any conscious direction".