Mrs Dalloway

This novel is considered the pinnacle of Virginia Woolf’s work, and its first line—"Mrs Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself"—is among the most memorable and elegant openings in literary history. "Mrs Dalloway" was published in 1925 and from the very beginning it was called a female answer to modernism’s classic model—James Joyce’s "Ulysses." The novel’s events unfold over the course of a single June day in 1923: the main character, Clarissa Dalloway, prepares for an evening reception of guests, remembers the past, worries, and thinks about the future. The author’s signature "stream of consciousness" technique immerses the reader in a flow state and helps subtly sketch the characters of many figures. One of the key themes of the narrative is the experience of World War I—an event that split people’s lives into before and after—but Woolf also touches on feminism, mental illness, trauma, and homosexuality. For your attention is a subtle, engaging, and profound book—a true masterpiece of modernist literature—now in the brilliant reading by Yulia Rutberg.