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Virginia Woolf (Britain, 1882), was born Adeline Virginia Stephen in a wealthy
family. As a young woman, she experienced periods of mental illness, culminating
in a suicide attempt.
She married at the age of 30 and the following year tried to kill herself again.
She eventually succeeded in 1941 when she jumped into the river, leaving behind a suicide note that begins with " I feel certain that I am going mad again" and ends with "I don't think two people could have been happier than we have been".
She was part of the bohemnian Bloomsbury society, where homosexuality and
bisexuality were normal. She herself had several female lovers.
She never had children.
"Jacob's Room" (1922)
Jacob Flanders, figlio di Betty e fratello di Archer e John,
viene seguito attraverso una serie di pannelli durante la sua crescita,
finché parte per la guerra.
Dialoghi, psicologia e trama sono praticamente assenti, o
troppo aridi; la galleria dei personaggi di contorno è tipicamente
vittoriana. Senso del dettaglio.
"Mrs Dalloway" (1925) + is a plotless novel that
takes place in a single day (in mid-June 1923), and in this it is similar to Joyce's "Ulysses" although it is much shorter and written in a simpler (if highly poetic) language. The "story" is
narrated from many different points of view in a stream of consciousness manner.
The text doesn't have a narrative voice but provides an omniscient description of the world.
It is a city novel as the protagonists wanders around the city.
There is in fact quite a bit of geographic detail of Clarissa's movements.
The novel seems to switch back and forth between inner consciousness and the outside world.
It is common to think that "Woolf = Proust + Joyce" but her novels differ substantially from Joyce's "Ulysses". To start with, this is a brief novel. Woolf is more poetic and Joyce is more erudite. More importantly, Woolf's novel is very much about her time (Septimus is a veteran of World War I, Clarissa is recovering from influenza) whereas "Ulysses" is completely abstracted from the tragedy of its time. More significant was probably the friendship with the poet TS Eliot. Eliot's "Wasteland" talks about lilacs in Spring and "Mrs Dalloway" begins with flowers in June.
The novel is a philosophical novel. Woolf was friend with
Bertrand Russell (through the Bloomsbury Group), who as a mathematician had co-authored the three volumes of "Principia Mathematica" (1910-13) and as a philosopher had published "The Analysis of Mind" (1921).
The novel is particularly about Time (it was originally meant to be titled "The Hours" and clocks appear throughout the novel to inform us of the time of the day).
English translations of Henri Bergson's books "Time and Free Will" (1889) and "Matter and Memory" (1896) were published in 1910-11.
Clarissa is so estranged from the traumas of her age that she is almost
a dislikable character.
A woman of high society, she seems only interested in throwing a party,
and self-reflects on her role in the world only when her friend kills himself.
Mental illness is a recurring theme in Woolf's novels (and in her real life) and here it leads to suicide (like in her real life).
Septimus' mental illness is caused by the trauma of World War I, which is truly a trauma of the whole European world. It is not only Septimus who commits suicide in the 1920s: Mussolini rises to power in 1922.
Clarissa and Septimus never meet during the course of the novel but they sound like a Daoist pair, complementary and opposite. (An early version of the novel had Clarissa committing suicide).
The novel is not autobiographical but one wonders if the female characters, a portfolio of society's age groups and social classes (Clarissa, Lady Millicent Burton, Sally Seton, Doris Kilman, Lucrezia Smith, and Maisie Johnson) compose, when added together, a portrait of the author.
Woolf was raised during an age of scientific revolutions. Just to mention Physics: Quantum Mechanics was born when she was a teenager, Einstein published his Special Relativity when she was in her twenties, Rutherford's model of the atom was proposed when she was a young woman, in 1924 Louis de Broglie proposed the theory of wave-particle duality (confirmed two years later by Max Born), and then in 1929 Edwin Hubble discovered that the universe is expanding
Her novels, that change the perception of space and time, were part of an artistic revolution that contributed to accept the new view of matter and of the universe.
Clarissa Dalloway is a middle-aged wife from the high society who is throwing a party, and comes through as rather superficial. She is recovering from influenza.
On the way to purchase flowers, Clarissa reminisces about her decision to marry Richard Dalloway, a politician, rather than her first love, Peter Walsh.
Septimus Smith, a shellshocked war veteran, is walking with his Italian wife Lucrezia, and we hear his stream of consciousness: he is depressed and suicidal, easily scared by any noise that sounds like an explosion. In his mind,
Septimus is still talking to his commander Evans, who was killed in battle.
Clarissa returns home and reminisces about her friendship with Sally Seton when they were young. They even kissed once.
She is surprised when
Peter, who has just returned from India, pays an announced visit.
They both think of when they split up even though they chat amicably.
Clarissa's 17-year-old daughter Elizabeth arrives and Peter leaves.
Peter runs into Septimus and Lucrezia who are having a weird discussion about suicide.
Lucrezia takes Septimus to see a psychologist, who suggests
a psychiatric hospital.
Richard Dalloway is invited to lunch with Lady Millicent Burton, and Clarissa is resentful that she was not invited.
Richard would like to tell Clarissa how much she loves her but, when he returns home, he can't find the words.
Clarissa visits Elizabeth who is studying with her tutor Doris Kilman.
We hear their thoughts: Clarissa and Doris despise each other.
Septimus and Lucrezia return home and Septimus seems to prepare for his trip, but instead kills himself jumping from the window.
Clarissa's party has already started. The psychologist arrives and tells Clarissa that Septimus has killed himself. Clarissa briefly walks into a room alone and meditates on Septimus' condition but then returns to the party.
"To the Lighthouse" (1927) ++
is composed of three chapters: "The Window", "Time Passes", and "To the
Lighthouse".
Da piccolo James Ramsey, ultimogenito, si vede rovinare dal
maltempo una gita al faro. Dieci anni dopo, morti la madre, un fratello ed una
sorella, riesce a compiere quella gita con il padre ed il fratello superstite.
Metà libro descrive la sera in cui sfuma la gita al faro: la durezza del
padre e la delicatezza della madre. Un breve intermezzo racconta i dieci anni
che intercorrono.
"Orlando" (1928)
synopsis forthcoming
"The Waves" (1931) +
synopsis forthcoming
"Years" (1937)
synopsis forthcoming
"Between the Acts" (1941) +
synopsis forthcoming
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