Page 339 - DENG404_FICTION

Digvijay Pandya, Lovely Professional University Unit 28: Virginia Woolf — Mrs. Dalloway

Unit 28: Virginia Woolf — Mrs. Dalloway Notes

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
28.1 Virginia Woolf—Mrs. Dalloway: Introduction to the Author

28.1.1 Introduction to the Author
28.2 Virginia Woolf — Mrs. Dalloway: Introduction to the Text
28.2.1 Introduction to the Mrs. Dalloway
28.3 Summary
28.4 Keywords
28.5 Review Questions

28.6 Further Readings

Objectives

After studying this unit, you will be able to:
• Know the Biography of Virginia Woolf

• Know the introduction to the work “Mrs. Dalloway”.

Introduction

Mrs. Dalloway is published on 14 May 1925. It is a novel by Virginia Woolf that details a day
in the life of Clarissa Dalloway in post-World War I England. It is one of Woolf’s best-known
novels. Created from two short stories, “Mrs. Dalloway in Bond Street” and the unfinished
“The Prime Minister”, the novel’s story is of Clarissa’s preparations for a party of which she
is to be hostess. With the interior perspective of the novel, the story travels forwards and back
in time and in and out of the characters’ minds to construct an image of Clarissa’s life and of
the inter-war social structure. In 2005, the novel was chosen by Time magazine as one of the
one hundred best English-language novels from 1923 to present.

28.1 Virginia Woolf—Mrs. Dalloway: Introduction to the Author

28.1.1 Introduction to the Author
In 1878, Leslie Stephen and Julia Jackson Duckworth married a second marriage for both. They
gave birth to Adeline Virginia Stephen four years later, on the 25th of January at 22 Hyde Park
Gate, London. Virginia was the third of their four children. Leslie Stephen began his career as
a clergyman but soon became agnostic and took up journalism. He and Julia provided their
children with a home of wealth and comfort.
Though denied the formal education allowed to males, Virginia was able to take advantage of
her father’s abundant library and observe his writing talent, and she was surrounded by

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 333