Description
Book Synopsis"Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself." So begins Virginia Woolf’s beloved fourth novel. First published in 1925, Mrs. Dalloway has long been considered Woolf’s masterpiece. A pivotal work of literary modernism, its simple plot—centred on an upper-class Londoner preparing to give a party—is complicated by Woolf’s satire of the English social system.
For decades, Woolf’s rapturous style and vision of individual consciousness have challenged and inspired readers, novelists and scholars alike. In this annotated volume based on the original British edition, acclaimed essayist and Oxford don Merve Emre mines Woolf’s diaries and notes on writing to take us into the making of Mrs. Dalloway, revealing the novel’s artistry and astonishing originality. Alongside her generous commentary, Emre offers hundreds of illustrations and little-seen photographs from Woolf’s life. The result is not only an essential volume for students and Woolf devotees but an incomparable gift to all lovers of literature.
Trade Review"[An] amazing, illustrated annotated edition… Unlike a lot of these books where you have to flick to the back or there are interrupting footnotes at the bottom, this is very usable, very navigable." -- Leo Robson, Summer reading round up - BBC Radio 4 Open Book
"[Emre’s] introduction combines personal testimony about her relationship to the novel—she is so devoted that she retyped Woolf’s manuscript for this edition—with deep research into its genesis... if you can read the novel a little more analytically, if you seek instruction on how it works and why, then this new edition will tell you all that you wish to know... Among its many illustrations, it includes a selection of maps, tracing the paths that Clarissa, Septimus and the other characters might have walked that day in 1923. The next time I’m in London with a few hours to spare, this is the
Mrs. Dalloway for me." -- Jeremy McCarter - The Wall Street Journal
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The Annotated Mrs Dalloway is timely… Emre finds Woolf’s life surfacing everywhere. Woolf’s thoughts, and her self, are irrepressible... Emre has created a kaleidoscope of revealing and illuminating images." -- Henry Oliver - UnHerd
"Each edition has its own magnificence… Emre’s edition is a seminar, a reading experience masterfully directed by a warm voice urging attention and suggesting interpretation... As more Woolf books emerge from copyright, we can expect many more editions. I hope that they are as consistent in purpose and as pleasant to explore as Fernald’s and Emre’s... Emre, unlike Fernald, is not a Woolf scholar, but she is something else well suited to the task: a storyteller." -- Emily Kopley - Times Literary Supplement
