Virginia Woolf • Mrs Dalloway

‘Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself.’ With this opening line, Virginia Woolf begins her narrative about Clarissa Dalloway, a woman from the English middle class in interwar London who is preparing for an evening party. Through inner monologue, the story moves back and forth in time and between characters, revealing a portrait of Clarissa’s life and the social structures of the interwar period.

Mrs. Dalloway is a groundbreaking classic, read by generation after generation, and it stands among the most significant works in modern literary history due to its innovative narrative technique. Woolf ’s use of stream of consciousness captures the natural flow of thoughts, providing a richer and more nuanced portrayal of the human psyche than had ever been achieved before.