The Annotated Mrs. Dalloway

Mrs. Dalloway begins with the simple yet significant line, "Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself." This marks the start of Virginia Woolf's much-beloved fourth novel. First published in 1925, Mrs. Dalloway is often regarded as Woolf's masterpiece, a pivotal work of literary modernism, and one of the most significant and influential novels of the twentieth century.

In this visually powerful annotated edition, acclaimed Oxford don and literary critic Merve Emre provides an authoritative version of this landmark novel. Emre supports it with extensive commentary that reveals Woolf's aesthetic and political ambitions in Mrs. Dalloway and beyond, as never seen before.

Mrs. Dalloway famously unfolds over the course of a single day in late June. The plot centres on the upper-class Londoner Clarissa Dalloway, who is preparing to host a party that evening for the nation's elite. However, the novel is enriched by Woolf's satire of the English social system and her groundbreaking representation of consciousness.

The narrative flows through the minds and thoughts of Clarissa, her former lover Peter Walsh, and others in their circle, as well as through shopkeepers and servants. Together, Woolf's characters—each a mix of memories and perceptions—create a broad portrait of a city and society subtly yet profoundly transformed by the Great War. Central to this transformation is the disturbed veteran Septimus Smith, plagued by hallucinations of a friend who died in battle. Septimus becomes an unexpected key figure in the novel, alongside Clarissa, despite the fact that the two never meet, in one of Woolf's radical narrative decisions.

Emre's extensive introduction and annotations trace the evolution of Clarissa Dalloway and Septimus Smith from earlier short stories and drafts of Mrs. Dalloway to their distinctive forms known by devoted readers. Woolf relied on her skill of "character reading" to bridge the gap between life and fiction, reality and representation. As Emre writes, Woolf's method involved delving deep into processes of consciousness to illuminate the infinite variety of sensation and perception within. From these depths, Woolf extracted an unlimited capacity for life, making her characters fundamentally unknowable yet vividly alive, showcasing the enduring achievement of her art.

For decades, Woolf's rapturous style and vision of individual consciousness have challenged and inspired readers, novelists, and scholars alike. The Annotated Mrs. Dalloway, featuring 150 illustrations, draws on decades of Woolf scholarship and numerous primary sources, including Woolf's private diaries and notes on writing. The result is not only a transporting edition of Mrs. Dalloway, but also an essential volume for Woolf devotees and an incomparable gift to all lovers of literature.