Set on a hot London day in June 1923, Mrs Dalloway explores both the raw hold of the past and the brighter potential of the future. The tragedy of the First World War is still a vivid presence, and the constraints of time and the freedoms of the mind, the abuse of power and the force of love, are themes that intertwine as the day unfolds. Clarissa Dalloway is the wife of an MP and an assured socialite, yet as she prepares for her party the links between her and the shell-shocked Septimus Warren Smith become ever more apparent. Mrs Dalloway is a book that is both highly experimental and deeply involving, deftly impressionistic yet firmly embedded in the crowded world of London. It has been a favourite with readers since it was first published in 1925; Woolf's 'hopes' for her book were well founded.
