Mrs. Dalloway (Classic Collection (Brilliance Audio))

A London summer day in 1923 I had previously only read Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own. Since no less an authority than Simone de Beauvoir, in her seminal work, The Second Sex repeatedly referenced Wolfe's works, and even quoted significant passages from "Mrs. Dalloway" (p. 509, Bantum, 1968 edition), I figured that Woolf, Book #2 was. A book to keep on your shelves forever. Wistful Angst How can such ordinary mental trifles of urban and modern Western civilization be so interesting and revealing when spotlighted by a genius author? Why do I continue to be fascinated by the ordinary and sometimes extraordinary relationship dramas preceding a shock of a self-revelation, or a sudden recognition of . "An Extraordinary Work of Art" according to Cathryn Conroy. This book by Virginia Woolf has been described as the greatest English language novel. That may not be hyperbole. Some sentences are so beautifully written that they beg to be read again (and again). The story is simple: It follows one day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway as she prepares to host a high-society p

Dalloway prepares for the party she is giving that evening, a series of events intrudes on her composure. As she immerses us in each inner life, Virginia Woolf offers exquisite, painful images of the past bleeding into the present, of desire overwhelmed by society's demands. Dalloway follows Clarissa and those whose lives brush hers--from Peter Walsh, whom she spurned years ago, to her daughter Elizabeth, the girl's angry teacher, Doris Kilman, and war-shocked Septimus Warren Smith, who is sinking into madness. As Clarissa Dalloway walks through London on a fine June morning, a sky-writing plane captures her attention. His sudden arrival evokes memories of a distant past, the choices she made then, and her wistful friendship with Sally Seton. Her husband is invited, without her, to lunch with Lady Bruton (who, Clarissa notes anxiously, gives the most amusing luncheons). --Joannie Kervran Stangeland. Like the airplane's swooping path, Virginia Woolf's Mrs. M

Four-time Oscar nominee Annette Bening (American Beauty, The Kids Are All Right) performs Woolf’s stream-of-consciousness style of storytelling brilliantly, exploring the hidden springs of thought and action in one day of a woman’s life.When we first meet Clarissa Dalloway, she is preoccupied with the last-minute minutiae of party-planning while being flooded with memories of long ago. Woolf’s depiction of Septimus Warren Smith brings to light the ugly and often ignored truth of how the brutality of war can drive men mad. Mrs. Dalloway is daring not only in its stream-of-consciousness form, but also in its content