BOOK: Mrs Dalloway - Virginia Woolf

Title: Mrs Dalloway
Author: Virginia Woolf
Genre: Novel
Publisher: Wordsworth Classics 2003 (1925)
Pages: Paperback, 141
Language: English
Rating: 6/10
Summary: The 1920's: a day in the life of middle aged Clarrisa Dalloway, who's hosting a party tonight.

Spoilerfree Review
I noticed the lack of female authors on my readinglist and asked for recommendations online; more than one person mentioned Virginia Woolf and when I found a whole series of her books with delightful covers, I bought four of her classics. I decided to read them chronologically, so I started with Mrs Dalloway which was first published in 1925.

It's the story of the middle aged Clarissa Dalloway who is getting ready to host an informal party at her house. While she is fixing her dress and keeping an eye on the staff's preparations, she reminisces about her childhood and thinks about how she met her husband.
In the mean time we also meet and follow a couple of other people, who are in one way or another involved with Mrs Dalloway, either in the past or present.
Each new scene is from another person's perspective and written in 'monologue interieur' or interior perspective. With twenty people walking around in London, all of them with their own -confused- thoughts, it got rather crowded in my brain.
The book is very well written and quite obviously a classic, but I found it very exhausting to read. There is no exterior explanation or description of any of the people and it's sometimes hard to distinguish between their thoughts. I did love the dialogues and it's good to read people basically have the same struggles with life, but I was very tired when I finished it.