Mrs. Dalloway

A stunning new edition of Virginia Woolf's engulfing portrait of one day in a woman's life, featuring a new foreword by Jenny Offill, the New York Times bestselling author of Weather and Dept. of Speculation.

A Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition, with flaps and deckle-edged paper.

Mrs. Dalloway begins with one of the most famous opening lines in literature: "Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself." This beloved masterpiece by Virginia Woolf explores themes of time, memory, and the city. In the wake of World War I and the 1918 flu pandemic, Clarissa Dalloway, elegant and vivacious, prepares for a party while remembering those she once loved.

In another part of London, Septimus Smith suffers from shell-shock and stands on the brink of madness. Their days interweave and their lives converge as the party reaches its glittering climax. Woolf perfects the interior monologue and recapitulates the life cycle within the hours of a single day, from first light to nightfall. She achieves a remarkable simulacrum of consciousness, seamlessly weaving past, present, and future, capturing the essence of life minute by minute.

This edition is collated from all known proofs, manuscripts, and impressions to reflect the author's intentions. It includes a catalogue of emendations, an illuminating introduction and endnotes by the distinguished feminist critic Elaine Showalter, and a map of Mrs. Dalloway's London.

For more than seventy-five years, Penguin has been a leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 2,000 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.