Mrs Dalloway : Is She Still Alive Today?
November 29th 2006 19:08
Image: Wikipedia
This month our book ventured into the classics with Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway. We try to include at least two classics a year, believing it enriches our reading experience, as so many of them are referred to in contemporary novels.
Unlike The Great Gatsby and Wuthering Heights, (read earlier this year) Dalloway did not score high with our group, but it did produce a lively discussion. One of the best we’ve had in my opinion!
Nancy loved its beautiful prose and clever structure – something we all generally agreed on. This however was not enough for Anne, who found it self-indulgent and just plain boring! She felt she could see how Woolf was compiling the story with clear pointers and was simply out to shock.
Denise found it hard going at first but persisted and was awarded with a great book, one she will not forget and would probably not of read outside of the book club.
Not surprisingly, we found our talk turning towards the social classes of 1920’s England and the dos and don’ts of its society. It was mentioned that what was then called ‘class structure’, (politically incorrect today) is now called ‘tradition’. Class distinction has been a common thread to many of our book discussions, which makes one think it is, and always will be an endurable theme in popular novels.
And of course we eventually found ourselves discussing the film ‘The Hours’ which is roughly based on Mrs Dalloway, and was the original title of the book. For those who had seen it, the opinion was of a brilliantly produced film that made one thing absolutely clear - Every generation has their own Mrs. Dalloway!
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