10 lesser-known facts about Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway on its 100th anniversary

Indian Express

14-05-2025

A century on, Virginia Woolf's novel, Mrs Dalloway, remains a profound meditation on time, memory, and human connection. Its stream-of-consciousness style and psychological depth continue to inspire writers and readers alike. In honour of the novel turning 100, we revisit some fascinating, lesser-known details about the modernist masterpiece. From its original title to its surprising literary influences, here are 10 things you might not know about Mrs Dalloway:
1. It was almost called The Hours Before settling on Mrs Dalloway, Woolf's working title was The Hours. Later, Michael Cunningham borrowed the title for his 1998 novel (and the subsequent 2002 film) about Woolf's life and the legacy of her book.
2. Clarissa Dalloway debuted in an earlier novel Long before her 1925 spotlight, Clarissa Dalloway appeared as a minor character in Woolf's first novel, The Voyage Out (1915). .
3. Iterations of the famous first line The iconic opening—'Mrs Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself'—was originally about gloves, not flowers. Woolf's shift to 'flowers' introduced a motif that blossoms throughout the novel.
4. It was inspired by Ulysses Woolf admired James Joyce's Ulysses (1922) for its single-day structure but criticised its 'squalid' focus on bodily functions. She sought to capture a day in London with more psychological depth and lyrical beauty.
5. The sky-writing scene was based on real-life advertising The mysterious airplane writing letters in the sky was inspired by a 1922 Daily Mail stunt using sky-writing for ads. Woolf transforms it into a symbol of modernity's fleeting, fragmented messages.
6. Septimus Smith was a late addition Originally, Woolf planned to have Clarissa die by suicide. Instead, she created Septimus, a shell-shocked veteran, to embody postwar trauma—while allowing Clarissa to live, deepening the novel's contrasts.
7. Woolf wrote it while battling her own mental illness During Mrs Dalloway's composition, Woolf struggled with depression. Her intimate understanding of mental anguish shaped Septimus's harrowing breakdown and Clarissa's quiet existential reflections.
8. The novel's timeframe mirrors Woolf's writing process The book takes place on a single day in June 1923—a period Woolf wrote about in real-time, drafting sections in sync with the season to capture its sensory richness.
9. Motorcar symbolises modern alienation The motorcar that interrupts London streets represents impersonal modernity, much like Henry Ford's assembly lines. Woolf contrasts this with characters craving individuality in a mechanised world.
10. It's a novel about survival While Clarissa's party is the climax, the book explores deeper tensions: postwar grief, repressed love, and the struggle to find meaning. As Woolf wrote, it's 'a study of insanity and suicide; the world seen by the sane and the insane.'