Mrs Dalloway - (Biography of a Novel) by Mark Hussey (Hardcover)

About the Book

Mrs Dalloway: Biography of a novel offers readers new to Virginia Woolf a lively introduction to this timeless classic, while providing established lovers with a wealth of information about the novel's writing, publication and reception.

Book Synopsis

The first book in the 'Biography of a novel' series offers a compelling account of Virginia Woolf's masterpiece.

The fourth and best-known of Virginia Woolf's novels, Mrs Dalloway is a modernist masterpiece that has remained popular since its publication in 1925. Its dual narratives follow a day in the life of wealthy housewife Clarissa Dalloway and shell-shocked war veteran Septimus Warren Smith, capturing their inner worlds with a vividness that has rarely been equalled.

Mrs Dalloway: Biography of a novel offers new readers a lively introduction to this enduring classic, while providing Woolf lovers with a wealth of information about the novel's writing, publication and reception. It follows Woolf's process from the first stirrings in her diary through her struggles to create what was quickly recognised as a major advance in prose fiction. It then traces the novel's remarkable legacy to the present day.

Woolf wrote in her diary that she wanted her novel 'to give life & death, sanity & insanity... to criticise the social system, & to show it at work, at its most intense.' Mrs Dalloway: Biography of a novel reveals how she achieved this ambition, creating a book that will be read by generations to come.

From the Back Cover

The fourth and best-known of Virginia Woolf's novels, Mrs Dalloway is a modernist masterpiece that has remained popular since its publication in 1925. Its dual narratives follow a day in the life of wealthy housewife Clarissa Dalloway and shell-shocked war veteran Septimus Warren Smith, capturing their inner worlds with a vividness that has rarely been equalled.

Mrs Dalloway: Biography of a novel offers new readers a lively introduction to this enduring classic, while providing Woolf lovers with a wealth of information about the novel's writing, publication and reception. It follows Woolf's process from the first stirrings in her diary through her struggles to create what was quickly recognised as a major advance in prose fiction. It then traces the novel's remarkable legacy to the present day.

Woolf wrote in her diary that she wanted her novel 'to give life & death, sanity & insanity... to criticise the social system, & to show it at work, at its most intense.' Mrs Dalloway: Biography of a novel reveals how she achieved this ambition, creating a book that will be read by generations to come.

Review Quotes

'Such personal touches, and the author's almost palpable enthusiasm, enhance a lively and well-drawn portrait of the novel's conception, birth and afterlife.'
Vanessa Curtis, Times Literary Supplement

'As the scholar Mark Hussey explains in his fascinating new book, Woolf was drawing on several streams of experience in her attempt to write the interior lives of an upper-class hostess and a shell-shocked veteran.'
Harriet Baker, The Times

'Full of delightful details.'
Zoe Guttenplan, Literary Review

'This engaging and clever book by Hussey now joins what he calls the "sprawling conversation" between the critics and readers of Mrs Dalloway. As an avowed Woolfian, he writes with warmth and empathy, but never at the expense of grappling with tricky issues... In his hands, the story of Mrs Dalloway over the past century is a compelling tale of literary reputations and cultural players.'
Helen Rees Leahy, Virginia Woolf Bulletin

'Ultimately, Mrs Dalloway: Biography of a novel is more than just a behind-the-scenes look at a book -- it's a celebration of Woolf's brilliance and a reminder of why her work still resonates so deeply. Whether you're a long-time Woolf fan or just starting to explore her writing, Hussey's book will make you appreciate Mrs. Dalloway all over again.'
Trevor Berrett, The Mookse and the Gripes

'Mark Hussey's Mrs Dalloway: Biography of a novel contains the whole world of Woolf's novel: contexts, influences, creation, criticisms. With immaculate scholarship and amazingly wide-ranging, the biography reads like a collection of fascinating short stories. A must buy!'
Maggie Humm, author of The Bloomsbury Photographs

'One hundred years after the publication of Mrs Dalloway, Mark Hussey has written an incisive biography of Woolf's novel, one that's as multifaceted and searching as its subject. Hussey's book is a gift to readers hoping to learn more about the conception, birth and enduring life of a profoundly influential work of art.'
Katharine Smyth, author of All the Lives We Ever Lived

'Even genius must revise, revise, revise. In this fascinating study, Mark Hussey provides not only behind-the-scenes glimpses of Virginia Woolf at work, but an examination of the novel's complicated reception and still-widening influence. Like the leaden circles of sound formed by Big Ben in Mrs Dalloway's London: "Out it boomed." Woolf's memorable style, social critique and experiments with point of view have left room for generations of readers to interpret the novel in their own evolving ways: the definition of a classic.'
Regina Marler, editor of The Selected Letters of Vanessa Bell

'A remarkably thorough, thoughtful, even affectionate book. The publishing section is particularly illuminating and confirms that it's never been easy to publish ground-breaking work!'
Lennie Goodings, Chair, Virago Press

'Mark Hussey's biography of Mrs Dalloway is a unique account of how the book came to be, the knowledge and experience that went into it, and the way the world has responded to it. Focused in detail and expansive in scope, it is also a pleasure to read.'
Edward Mendelson, Lionel Trilling Professor in the Humanities, Columbia University

'Mark Hussey's fascinating biography of Mrs Dalloway is truly astounding in its encyclopaedic range and depth: taking the reader on a riveting journey through the composition, publication and global afterlives of this iconic novel.'
Anna Snaith, Professor of Twentieth-Century Literature, King's College London

'Essential reading for anybody who loves Mrs Dalloway, this beautifully written book, full or original research and new insights, skilfully tells the story of Mrs Dalloway from the very first drafts of the novel through to its legacy today. Mark Hussey wears his considerable scholarship lightly, making this an important and fascinating contribution to academic studies but at the same time a book so compelling that you don't want to put it down.'
Wendy Hitchmough, author of Vanessa Bell: The Life and Art of a Bloomsbury Radical

About the Author

Mark Hussey is Distinguished Professor of English Emeritus at Pace University in New York. He is founding editor of Woolf Studies Annual and general editor of the Harcourt Annotated Edition of the Works of Virginia Woolf, for which he edited To the Lighthouse. His recent publications include Clive Bell and the Making of Modernism (2022) and Modernism's Print Cultures (with Faye Hammill, 2016).