Without a shadow of doubt, Woolf’s finest work and one of the best pieces of literature ever written in the 20th century, Mrs. Dalloway explores a variety of conflicting themes and characters in a post-First World War upper-middle class London Society. Woolf’s almost disjointedly detailed style of narrative flickers between the soliloquies of the main character - Clarissa Dalloway, her former love interest - Peter Walsh, and the apparently unrelated yet mysteriously interlinked character of the mentally deranged Septimus Warren Smith, an English War veteran.
‘Mystery’ remains the only word capable of expressing the sheer comprehensive depth of the darkly complex themes and characters that shiver across and slip past this vast storyline - a storyline so dark and despairing that one cannot help but forget that the story is set on a bright London day in the sun-bathed month of June. Yet if there is one thing which is certain, it is that this novel isn’t for the faint-hearted. With its deeply-winding exploration of the post-War trauma in a London upper-middle class society changed and shocked by war, mental health, the memory of the past, broken hearts, dissatisfaction, and fragmented identities, Mrs. Dalloway proves to be a classic that is far beyond it’s time.
⭐Rating: 10/10
-Rehan Singh
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