Two contrasting stream-of-consciousness narratives in this novel, set 100 years ago. Mrs Dalloway is preparing to host a party – we go inside her thoughts and also those of various friends and associates, so we get a full picture of her and her milieu. At the same time, we enter the lonely and disordered mind of Septimus Smith, a shell-shocked war veteran, and his put-upon wife Rezia. The two stories glance off one another at times during the novel. Mrs Dalloway’s narrative is interesting, petty, expansive, while Smith’s is just sad, especially by way of contrast.
A couple of the women characters (Mrs Dalloway’s daughter’s tutor Doris Kilman, and her friend’s assistant Millie Brush) are described multiple times in hilariously unflattering terms. In this stream-of-consciousness novel, it’s not always easy to tell who is thinking the various thoughts, but these ones appear to be omniscient descriptions. Both these characters are a bit unpleasant, especially Miss Kilman; but the narrative unkindness makes me much more sympathetic to them. Perhaps this is what Woolf intended.
I did find the whole book to be just very insightful. I really felt as if I understood many of the characters very well, in a way that would not be possible with a more descriptive, less immersive style. Lots of sentences and descriptions that made me stop reading and stare out the window.
“It was enemies one wanted, not friends”