7 h 17 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · 179 pagesHardcover · 6 × 9 in · 179 pagesAbout this book
A woman buys flowers for a party, while old loves and the wounds of war stir beneath London's ordinary day.
In Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, Clarissa Dalloway steps into a June morning to prepare for her evening party. She is a politician’s wife, at home in London society, yet troubled by paths she never takes. When Peter Walsh returns from India, the man she once refuses to marry brings old feelings close again.
Elsewhere in the city, Septimus Warren Smith struggles with memories of the trenches, while his wife Rezia longs to help him. Big Ben marks the hours as Woolf moves between minds. Beneath errands, conversations and social duties lie questions about love, time and a society that turns away from its wounded.
What you’ll discover
- A life beneath appearances Look beyond Clarissa’s polished manners to the doubts and desires that shape her day.
- Old loves still stirring Meet Peter Walsh and discover how choices from long ago remain painfully present.
- The wounds of war Follow Septimus and Rezia through a London where suffering can go unseen.
- Thought in motion Experience Woolf’s flowing narration as street sounds open into memories, impressions and sudden fears.
- Hours filled with meaning Hear Big Ben mark a day alive with questions about time, love and identity.
Is it for you?
This book suits readers who enjoy character, mood and language more than fast plot, and anyone curious about London after the Great War. It also rewards patient listeners. If you need a clear plot with many events, you may find it slow.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Clarissa steps out into a June morning
- One city, one hour, many minds
- Septimus and Rezia sit in the park
- Peter Walsh comes home from India
- Bourton, Sally Seton and a choice
- Doctors who prescribe order and rest
- Lunch, Miss Kilman and Elizabeth
- Time, death and the shape of a self
- How the novel is told
Who’s who
- Clarissa DallowayA fifty-one-year-old London hostess, wife of a politician, who loves life and the city and gives a party that evening.
- Richard DallowayClarissa's steady husband, a member of Parliament, who wants to tell her he loves her and finds the words hard to say.
- Peter WalshClarissa's old suitor, back from India after five years, restless and still tied to the love she once refused.
- Septimus Warren SmithA young veteran of the war, haunted by the loss of his friend Evans and by visions no one around him understands.
- Lucrezia Warren SmithCalled Rezia, Septimus's Italian wife, who is lonely in London and desperate to help her husband back to health.
- Sally SetonClarissa's bold friend from girlhood at Bourton, who once meant the world to her and is now a settled married woman.
- Elizabeth DallowayClarissa's shy seventeen-year-old daughter, who prefers the open air to society and is close to her tutor.
- Miss KilmanElizabeth's poor and devout history tutor, who resents Clarissa's comfort and wants to keep Elizabeth for herself.
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 7 h 17 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 14 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in, 179 pages: 8,95 USD when you start free, 14,95 USD on its own.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in, 179 pages: 15,95 USD when you start free, 21,95 USD on its own.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Mrs. Dalloway
by Virginia Woolf· 1925
A London hostess prepares for a party and revisits her past.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 9
Clarissa steps out into a June morning
The novel opens with Clarissa Dalloway deciding to buy the flowers for her party herself, because her servant Lucy has plenty of other work. She walks through Westminster toward the florist. The morning feels fresh to her, and it throws her back at once to her girlhood at a country house called Bourton, where she once flung open the French windows and felt that something awful was about to happen.
This is how Woolf works from the first page. A simple errand opens into memory, and memory opens into feeling, and the reader moves with Clarissa without any warning of the change. She loves London, its traffic, its noise and its crowds. She says she loves life, and the book shows this is no small claim for a woman who has been seriously ill and who now sleeps alone in a narrow bed in an attic room.
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The author
Virginia Woolf
1882–1941 · English modernist novelist
Virginia Woolf was an English writer born in London in 1882. She wrote novels and essays, including The Voyage Out (1915), Jacob’s Room (1922), Mrs. Dalloway (1925), and The Common Reader (1925). She lived in London and Sussex. She died in Sussex in 1941.
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What is Mrs. Dalloway about?
It follows one day in June 1923 in London. Clarissa Dalloway prepares a party while old memories return, and a shell-shocked veteran named Septimus Smith struggles with his own torment. The two stories run in parallel across the city.
Who is Septimus Warren Smith in Mrs. Dalloway?
He is a young war veteran who has returned from France disturbed by the death of his friend Evans. He sees visions and fears doctors. He acts as a shadow figure to Clarissa, though they never meet.
Is Mrs. Dalloway hard to read?
It can be at first, because it has no chapters and moves quickly from mind to mind. The best approach is to follow the flow of feeling and the hour bells. After a few pages the rhythm becomes clear.
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