The Mrs. Dalloway Reader: The Virginia Woolf Library Authorized Edition

This book contains not only Woolf's novel but, for the price of a hard back version of the novel, half of this book also includes the basic scholarship that not only illuminates Mrs. Dalloway as a novel but gets one well prepared (and eager) for the rest of Virginia Woolf, as a novelist, critic and person. This book is an intellectual and financial bargain not often available otherwise.

The language creates a feeling of actually being where the characters are--walking, musing on their pasts, critically assessing the behavior or appearance of others--I almost felt that I too could inhale the air they breathed. Some of the essays by other authors had interesting interpretations and info too.

Mrs. Dalloway, easily my favorite of Woolf's many works (both fiction and non), displays new vitality in this collection that provides additional background about the novel, early versions and stories featuring related characters, and other authors commenting on the effect of the novel on their lives (both professional and personal). The additional resources are a bit inconsistent in quality (most disappointing is Michael Cunningham's contribution - barely two pages - despite the fact that his novel The Hours, in addition to being a great work of literary fiction on its own, reimagined Mrs. Dalloway and introduced the original work to a new generation of readers). In addition to being a pleasure to read and an intriguing exploration of madness versus civility, it challenged the idea of the type of scope and action that "should" be the concern of the "serious" novel. If you've read and enjoyed Cunningham's The Hours but haven't yet picked up Mrs. Dalloway, then you are missing out on part of the experience of reading really great literature: finding connections to other works, other voices, other worlds. What is affecting in The Hours is made even more powerful by knowing the work that helped bring it into being. This collection is especially useful for classes working with Mrs. Dalloway; however, as of writing this review, the book is currently "out of stock" indefinitely with no scheduled reprint date (which is bookstore lingo for being one step away from officially out of print). I hope that this collection will be treated to a second edition (perhaps with expanded commentary - c'mon Cunningham, I know you can do better than that!) or at least a new printing to bring this classic piece of literature to life for even more students.

`Mrs Dalloway' is a kind of cultural phenomena. Everyone that I know has a different take on who she is, what this book is, and what the novel is supposed to stand for. Enter into this fray the authors own opinion about the whole of it and you have an all-out melee of fiction versus fiction. This book, The Mrs Dalloway Reader, attempts to focus this problem somewhat. In it, not only will you find the novel itself, but you will also find various supplementary materials that help to ease you into what this novel is and what it means to so many different people. From those whose experience began with trying to impress a girl (and the lucky happenstance of finding the book at a Book-Mobile) to those who fought off the strains of absinthe addiction, the short pieces in range from essays to the first `draft' of the novel `Mrs Dalloway's Party'. Include in this assortment such lovingly-crafted emulations as Jane Mansfield's `The Garden Party' and you've got yourself a real winning combination. But is this a good reason to buy this book? Don't you need more reasons? Of course! Take this one: I knew absolutely nothing about Virginia Woolf when I purchased this book. She lived about 100 years ago. She wrote many books and I've seen some of her diaries in the hands of female students when I was in high school about ten years ago. She is popular with the intelligent-female group, those who want to be well-read and know the difference between Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley. Add to this that I am a guy. Now, take all that and combine it, dashing in the fact that this book single-handedly introduced me to who Virginia Woolf is and what she stood for- just through the supplementary material- and you have not only a great novel but a good place to get your foot into the door of this wonderful writer. Is that still not enough? Okay: supplementary material aside, how is the book? Wonderful. It is a style of writing that I've heard called `Impressionistic' by some learned person. This is true- until you read Virginia Woolf (who is far easier to understand than other stream-of-consciousness writers such as Joyce) you have no idea what great pictures such simple things as words can express. Mrs Dalloway does this too, moving the reader through a simple narrative that is painted with poetical words, bringing to life a novel that is to fiction what Renoir is to painting; only the basic outline is there, amid all the broad strokes, and you must look to find it...but it is amazing when you see it. LP Bottom line: If you know nothing about Virginia Woolf and want a good, solid platform from which to start, pick this one. If you know a lot about her and want to explore more, you pick this one too.

Very comprehensive and well produced . Highly readable and helpful for an essay comparing The Hours and Mrs. Dalloway. Buy it