If you liked Mrs Dalloway — and of course you did! — then you should also read this collection of further episodes from the famous party.
The first story, Mrs Dalloway in Bond Street, is like an alternative version of the opening of Mrs Dalloway. Apparently it actually is an earlier version of the first chapter. Like the original it jumps straight into impressions and streams of consciousness. My Proust radar went off immediately, on the first page, when I read this:
there is nothing to take the place of childhood. A leaf of mint brings it back; or a cup with a blue ring.
Or a madeleine dipped in tea.
After this, each story is a deep dive into the innermost thoughts of one or two of Mrs Dalloway’s party guests. My favourite is probably The Man Who Loved His Kind, about Mr Ellis and Miss O’Keefe who meet and converse. So much goes on inside them, turmoil and anguish and such, but on the outside they behave with perfect propriety. I got the impression of terribly, terribly repressed people getting worked up over nothing as a substitute for their contemporary angst. The ending is as downbeat as the rest of the story:
Hating each other, hating the whole houseful of people who had given them this painful, this disillusioning evening, these two lovers of their kind got up, and without a word, parted for ever.
My other favourite story is Ancestors, a brief story about Mrs Vallance’s feelings during a brief part of the party as she is forced to listen to a young man who – if you can believe it – dislikes watching cricket matches. I learned a lot about Mrs Vallance in just a couple of pages. And I have great sympathy for her – I, for one, quite enjoy watching cricket.
Apart from the first story, the others could all be slotted into Mrs Dalloway to give a fuller impression of the party. But that would be over-egging the pudding – there is a different feel to this collection and it works really well as a stand-alone, to read after Mrs Dalloway.