Reader discussion: Mrs. Dalloway

Public reader discussion about Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf.

Disappointed by Woolf

By SilverFocus1993

I finished *To the Lighthouse* last year and really liked it—still think it’s one of my favorite classic books, like top five material. But then I moved on to *Mrs. Dalloway* and… wow, the contrast is big. Honestly, I found it pretty boring. I can see the craft and the whole way she writes, and I even tried to pick up some of the technique for my own stuff, but I couldn’t really follow what was happening half the time. I feel like Woolf sometimes just goes over my head. :/

Mrs Dalloway: Section 2

By oceanlost

Jumping between all these different characters’ heads was kind of interesting, but I’m still not totally sure how I feel about it. Also, London is everywhere in this book—there are so many place descriptions that it sometimes feels like a lot, but I guess it does help you really picture the time and setting. The whole gossip thing about who’s in that car was pretty funny/chaotic to me, especially everyone trying to figure out if someone important or even royal is inside. And the plane stuff—people staring at the smoke and trying to guess what it’s spelling—made me wonder if it’s meant to be more symbolic than just random attention. Like… maybe it’s not really about toffee, but that’s the vibe. Then you get Septimus and Lucrezia, and Septimus seems really down, worrying that other people can tell. I don’t know if I “get” his headspace exactly, but it felt very real. Lucrezia also has her own suffering, but she feels stuck and can’t really talk about it, which I can understand a bit. So yeah, I’ve got a bunch of questions, but mostly I’m curious what everyone thinks the narrative is doing with all the shifting viewpoints and the London details.

It's Virginia Woolf's birthday. It reminded me of my first year at uni

By Stone_Brown1977

In my first year at uni I took an English class where we had to get through five books, and one of them was *Mrs Dalloway*. It was the first Woolf I’d ever read, so it basically introduced me to her. We were told to read it and break it down because it shows modernism and that whole stream-of-consciousness style, and they even mentioned how it connects to Joyce’s *Ulysses*. I really liked it—especially how she gets into relationships, the whole social setup, loneliness, and how time works. Kinda sad, though, because it’s still the only Woolf book I’ve read so far. With Virginia Woolf in mind today, I think I’ll just head to my local library and try to track down more of her books.

A guide through the book related subreddits.

By valley_salpoid44

If you’re trying to find new reads, there are a bunch of book subs for different vibes (recommendations, deals, discussion, all that). Like for suggestions: r/suggestmeabook, r/BooksThatFeellikeThis, r/booksuggestions, etc. There are also bargain/deal ones (ebookdeals, mangadeals, FreeEBOOKS), general discussion (YA, weird lit, book to film, historical fiction, small books), and then whole sections for Fantasy/Sci-Fi/Horror (cozy fantasy, fantasy romance, horror lit, progression fantasy, litrpg), Romance (romancebooks, historical romance, fantasy romance), plus a bunch of author/series specific ones like Dune, Sanderson, Discworld, Stephen King, Tolkien, and so on. Other categories include comic/graphic novels, book clubs (there are some that read multiple books at once, and some that do one book every year), audiobooks (audible/audiobooks), nonfiction/history, webnovels/fanfic, “book porn” type subs, and even satire stuff. Kind of wondering if anyone else has more they think should be added, but I’m also not totally sure because I didn’t want the list to go forever lol. I ended up only keeping active subs and ones that are basically exclusively about books. Also someone already linked a longer list so… yeah. Thanks for all the suggestions though, I didn’t expect it to get this big. I’ll probably keep updating tomorrow.

What are you reading?

By envelope_tide

Wait, what are you reading?

Mrs Dalloway

By mercy_panther70

I just finished this and I really enjoyed it—there’s a lot of vivid imagery and it’s just such an easy, lovely read. But I’m still not sure what the whole point is. Is she showing this big contrast between two lives, like one going downhill while the other is all comfort but kind of empty? Or is it more about how love doesn’t really fade? Curious what you all think.