Mrs. Dalloway’s Party by Virginia Woolf
Nowadays I do tend to try to only read one book at a time; but as Sunday 25th was Virginia Woolf’s birthday I decided to celebrate by casting aside my current read and dipping into the slim volume I picked up in London, “Mrs. Dalloway’s Party.”
The book brings together seven short stories which all centre around the Dalloways and the party they’re holding at their house (which of course features in the climax of the novel “Mrs. Dalloway”). However, just to clarify (because I needed to clarify this for myself!) all of these stories are available in the Collected Shorter Fiction; but when “Mrs. Dalloway’s Party” was first published in 1973, not all of them were. It’s a minor point, but one which the publishers could perhaps make clearer, rather than just leaving the first pages of the introduction to state badly that two of the stories are not available elsewhere when in fact they are.
Putting that aside, however, there’s a great deal of sense in collecting these tales together in a sequence. The first story “Mrs. Dalloway in Bond Street”, was originally the opening chapter of the novel “Mrs. Dalloway”, but was replaced by the later version. However, if you’ve read the novel there will be recognisable elements in this original, as we follow Clarissa walking through London to buy gloves for her party. The rest of the stories are focussed on guests at the gathering, from a slightly embittered ex-school chum of Richard Dalloway, to a young mother in an inappropriate dress and a Scots woman missing the country. The Dalloways make fleeting appearances in these tales, and instead we see the party (and the whole experience of party-going) from this variety of different viewpoints, and it’s quite fascinating.
Woolf, of course, has a wonderful way of getting inside the heads of her characters, portraying their thought-processes and interactions quite brilliantly. As the guests flit around the party, mingling and misunderstanding each other, we can see the effect something like this kind of event can have – the exhilaration, the disappointments, the highs and the lows.
The excellent introduction by Stella McNichol puts the stories in context, with biographical background, and it seems that Woolf was drawn to compose many of these stories after having completed “Mrs. Dalloway” – an unusual event in itself, as she pretty much always wanted to move away rapidly from a novel when it was completed and work on something completely different.
Needless to say, these stories are quite brilliant. If you have the complete collection of shorter works you don’t need to buy them in a separate volume (although it is lovely to own them like this), but I’d highly recommend reading the sequence in order – it certainly gives you a special insight into Woolf’s writing, and even if you haven’t read “Mrs. Dalloway” they’re still very special stories! Once more, I’ve returned to Virginia Woolf and found that I still love her work just as much as I ever did – the journals and essays are definitely calling to me… 🙂
(Just for information, the story sequence runs:
Mrs. Dalloway in Bond Street
The Man Who Loved His Kind
The Introduction
Ancestors
Together and Apart
The New Dress
A Summing Up)
Liz Dexter
Feb 04, 2015 @ 08:47:03
Oh, wonderful! I don’t have the Complete Shorter Fiction and will add this to my wishlist – thanks for providing the list for those who do have the Complete SF, though. Oh I want to read this NOW!
kaggsysbookishramblings
Feb 04, 2015 @ 10:51:16
:)) It’s really rather lovely – I hope you get to read it soon! 🙂
Fleur in her World
Feb 04, 2015 @ 09:56:52
I am tempted, but it’s so long since I read Woolf and there are so many gaps in my knowledge that I think I must go back and read chronologically.
kaggsysbookishramblings
Feb 04, 2015 @ 10:52:16
Well, if you do read chronologically, this would be good to get to straight after reading Mrs. Dalloway! I read Woolf chronologically the first time round, and I’d really like to do it again one day! 🙂
JacquiWine
Feb 04, 2015 @ 11:03:20
Like Jane, I’m tempted…but I’d probably want to revisit Mrs Dalloway first (it’s years since I read it). Sounds like a fascinating companion piece, especially given your comments about Mrs D in Bond Street and its original position as the opening chapter of the novel itself.
kaggsysbookishramblings
Feb 04, 2015 @ 11:09:56
Yes, I definitely think it’s best read near to Mrs. Dalloway – I re-read last year, so the time was right for me! 🙂
heavenali
Feb 04, 2015 @ 20:04:00
I really want to love Virginia Woolf as much as you do. I hope to get to grips with her a bit more later this month when I read Orlando for my book group.
kaggsysbookishramblings
Feb 04, 2015 @ 20:59:22
I hope you love Orlando – maybe reading it in a group will enhance the experience. If it’s not for you, perhaps Flush or Mrs. Dalloway might be a better way in! 🙂
heavenali
Feb 04, 2015 @ 21:02:06
I have read Mrs Dalloway – I did like it – but there were moments when I went What?! Read To the Lighthouse when I was too young/not ready for her – and it put md off.
kaggsysbookishramblings
Feb 04, 2015 @ 21:15:23
Yes, I agree To The Lighthouse is not an easy one to start with. Mrs. Dalloway was my first Woolf and I did love it, but I was in my 20s by then!
heavenali
Feb 04, 2015 @ 21:17:17
Well I only read Mrs D three or four years ago I think – but it did make me want to explore more of her work, I just never managed to get round to it.
kaggsysbookishramblings
Feb 04, 2015 @ 21:18:33
I know – there are *so* many books to read! 🙂
Gemma
Feb 04, 2015 @ 20:18:50
I didn’t realise these short stories existed but Mrs Dalloway is one of my favourite books so this collection sounds wonderful!
kaggsysbookishramblings
Feb 04, 2015 @ 20:59:58
I was really glad I read it soon after re-reading Mrs. D. – all her short stories are wonderful really! 🙂
Audrey
Feb 05, 2015 @ 01:02:03
I do own a collection of her complete shorter fiction as of lunchtime today, thanks to you (and Fleur!) and will follow your advice on reading them in order, But the title and covers on the Party edition are going to tempt me…I just know it.
kaggsysbookishramblings
Feb 05, 2015 @ 08:18:05
🙂 I have the complete shorter fiction too, but the lure of the Party edition was just too much. But *all* of her short pieces are so wonderful that I’m sure you’ll get great joy out of the collected works!!
Sonntagsleserin Februar 2015 | buchpost
Feb 05, 2015 @ 15:41:31
Cavershamragu
Feb 06, 2015 @ 12:48:09
I don’t have this but must remedy (MRS DALLOWAY is such a great book) this, thanks Karen! By the way, WordPress is doing slightly odd things – when I clicked initially to your site I was told that the blog had gone! Glad it hasn’t …
kaggsysbookishramblings
Feb 06, 2015 @ 13:16:35
Eek! That’s vaguely alarming – I’m glad I’m still here, and I hope you enjoy MDP! 🙂
Kat
Feb 08, 2015 @ 21:19:03
Thank you for telling us about this! I love Mrs. Dalloway, but had no idea there were stories!
kaggsysbookishramblings
Feb 08, 2015 @ 21:35:56
It’s a lovely story sequence – Mrs. Dalloway was my first Woolf, and it’s possibly my favourite (if there can be such a thing!)
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