{"id":4724,"date":"2026-08-05T21:37:36","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T09:37:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/?p=4724"},"modified":"2026-08-31T21:46:49","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T09:46:49","slug":"mrs-dalloways-party-virginia-woolf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/2026\/08\/05\/mrs-dalloways-party-virginia-woolf\/","title":{"rendered":"Mrs Dalloway’s Party — Virginia Woolf"},"content":{"rendered":"
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If you liked Mrs Dalloway<\/em><\/a> — and of course you did! — then you should also read this collection of further episodes from the famous party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first story, Mrs Dalloway in Bond Street<\/em>, is like an alternative version of the opening of Mrs Dalloway<\/em>. 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<\/a> radar went off immediately, on the first page, when I read this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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there is nothing to take the place of childhood. A leaf of mint brings it back; or a cup with a blue ring.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Or a madeleine dipped in tea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After this, each story is a deep dive into the innermost thoughts of one or two of Mrs Dalloway\u2019s party guests. My favourite is probably The Man Who Loved His Kind<\/em>, about Mr Ellis and Miss O\u2019Keefe 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:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

My other favourite story is Ancestors<\/em>, a brief story about Mrs Vallance\u2019s feelings during a brief part of the party as she is forced to listen to a young man who \u2013 if you can believe it \u2013 dislikes watching cricket matches. I learned a lot about Mrs Vallance in just a couple of pages.  And I have great sympathy for her \u2013 I, for one, quite enjoy watching cricket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apart from the first story, the others could all be slotted into Mrs Dalloway<\/em> to give a fuller impression of the party. But that would be over-egging the pudding \u2013 there is a different feel to this collection and it works really well as a stand-alone, to read after Mrs Dalloway<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4725,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,64,278],"class_list":["post-4724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-books","tag-short-stories","tag-virginia-woolf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4724"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4731,"href":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4724\/revisions\/4731"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}