Rating: 
Summary: A summer's day in London
Review: This book is fabulous. The way it portrays time passing is incredible, you feel as if you are experiencing a day in London after the first World War. The way Woolf shifts the narrative from one person to the next is done very well. The book is very short in length, and is easier to read than Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and is much shorter than Remembrances of Things Past, so thus would be a nice introduction to stream of consciousness writing.
Rating: 
Summary: No need to fear Virginia Woolf
Review: This book was published 74 years ago and was, in its day, somewhat experimental. It is not so dense and difficult as "Ulysses" (I believe Mrs. Woolf was reading Joyce and Proust at the time she was writing Mrs. Dalloway) and is much more accessible, not to mention shorter. I personally loved this book and found it liberating as a writer, to read the flowing, discursive narrative. The language is worked by a master craftsman and a pleasure to read. Without books like this, newer books like "Angela's Ashes" would not exist. Writers like Joyce, Woolf, and Dylan Thomas paved the way for prose such as Frank McCourt uses in his book on his Irish childhood. The book takes a little patience, I admit. It's not a book that "gets on with it." It's a book for reading, sometimes as little as a page or two a day, and for savoring. I don't agree with some reviewers thinking it's a "woman's" book as opposed to a "man's" book. I don't agree with some of the didactic comments here, either... complaints about the use of parataxsis, for instance. People think paratactically, why not write that way? It requires that the reader shift gears somewhat, that's all. I found the book engaging all the way through. I think the great triumph of this book is that, given the distance - from the majority of present day readers - in time, culture, and class of the main character one can nonetheless find common ground internally with this attenuated woman and her worries and concerns. Yes, she is worried about the flowers for her party, but she is also worried about her daughter's apparent affection for another character. All in all, one of the finest books in the language. EKW
Rating:
Summary: Just a glimps...
Review: How come everyone around us has these fixed ideas about what we are? Is constant shifts in emotions and thoughts sufficient to categorize us as separate and whole human beings? Maybe we can be just as influenced by somebody we have never even met as our very closest relations. "What a plunge!" -into the very center of our selves. Dearing as always, Mrs Virginia Woolf reveals her characters and herself in this confusing and intricate novel.
Rating:
Summary: Astoudingly complex
Review: This is an incredible, but difficult book. You'll be disappointed if you expect a leisurely, summer read. I read it for a class and ended up reading it several more times. It beautifully captures some of the most poignant feelings in life. Things to look for: the repetition of the number "three", references to Milton and birds of paradise, waves & undulation....There's so much more. This book is absolutely amazing.
Rating:
Summary: Good job, VW
Review: Did you ever notice how a single day can be filled with a million different thoughts and ideas and minor crisises and near misses and almosts and should haves and would haves? This is what it is to be alive. And yet, after years and years of these days, each one crammed full of those moments, it is possible to look back and think 'nothing much has happened to me'. I am grateful to VW for Mrs Dalloway because it takes the time to pin down the true fleeting nature of every moment we live. For every single thing we remember, there are at least a thousand things that we have forgotten.
Rating: 
Summary: Plotless Procession of Paratactic Prose
Review: Day in the life in post-War London, told in stream of consciousness narrative centering mainly on the title character, a middle-aged upper-class British matron as she prepares for a party, and also told from the perspectives of her unsuccessful suitor, her bland husband, her daughter and her daughter's tutor, and an unrelated veteran and his long-suffering Italian war-bride. Woolf will occasionally fly into an inspired combination of words that offer an honest glimpse of life and love that is both profound and awe-inspiring. But the absence of any plot structure leaves the reader not particularly caring how the party turns out, or what these generally boring people are thinking about. I feel stupid for admitting this, but my honest reaction to this book was: "Huh?"
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful and thoughtprovoking, but not without fault
Review: Of course, Clarissa Dalloway is a stunning creation of Woolf's, but notice also her relationship with Septimus Smith. The two never meet, but their bond creates the climax of the book. Clarissa's empty life and Septimus' insanity are both criticisms of a society which refuses to let go of its imperialist past.
Rating:
Summary: Wolfe's effervescent imagination captured me....
Review: Wolfe's effervescent imagination captured me; I enjoyed the motif of the leaves on the trees shimmering, shining and fluttering--to me, it seemed that each character shook in the wind with vitality; Clarissa, Peter, Sally, Septimus, Rezia, they all shimmered. Then, I enjoyed the contrasting motif of the clock--mechanical; represented by the characters of Richard, Dr. Bradshaw; it connected all the characters; it was reductionist; and ultimately completing, as all the characters come full circle (yes, even Septimus!). I enjoyed--rather, respect this novel for what it achieves. But I enjoyed The Great Gatsby (written in the same year) much, much more. I muse; I consider both novels to be similar in many ways. But, unfortunately, I found myself drifting in my own "stream of consciousness" while reading this novel and had to force myself to come back to the pages. Still, I recommend it. (Sorry if there seems to be a higher amount of semi-colons. But I told you that I had just finished reading it!)
Rating:
Summary: It all comes together!
Review: As a student at the Good Hope School in the Virgin Islands, I was required to read this novel. At first, it was confusing and jumbled as the changeing of narrators took place. It was difficult to seperate the past from the present, but as I continued to read, it all came together and the reading became easier to comprehend. I enjoyed the book a lot, which is very un-common, and I am looking forward to reading some of the others by Ms.Woolf. I just have one thing to say to my high school english teacher, Ms. Airoldi, on page 87 there is one quote that sums up our entire school year in AP British Literature and it's words are, "not savagely."
Rating:
Summary: "What a lark! What a plunge!"
Review: These, Woolf's, words are exactly as I would describe the book. The delightful style encompasses something I never encountered before in literature. Virginia Woolf exibits two distinct voices: one almost flippant, and one rich, plunging into the depths of a woman's soul. Woolf allows Mrs. Dalloway (the clever title says it all about her identity) to portray the societal role that an early twentieth century Mrs. must fulfill, and the inner voice of strength that Clarissa Dalloway must have. The words are exquisite and Clarissa is just lovely.
| 
