Mrs. Dalloway is a novel by Virginia Woolf published on 14 May 1925. It details a day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, a fictional upper-class woman in post-First World War England. It is one of Woolf’s best-known novels.
The working title of
Mrs. Dalloway was
The Hours. The novel began with two short stories, ‘Mrs. Dalloway in Bond Street’ and the unfinished ‘The Prime Minister’. The book describes Clarissa’s preparations for a party she will host in the evening and the ensuing party. With an interior perspective, the story travels forwards and backwards in time, to construct an image of Clarissa’s life and the inter-war social structure. The novel addresses the nature of time in personal experience through multiple interwoven stories.