Reading Mrs. Dalloway

by Mary F. Burns

"Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself."

You read the first sentence, and you're in. In the midst of things; in medias res, a classic, and classical, element of literature. "Reading Mrs. Dalloway" is a deep and broad look into Virginia Woolf's classic novel of poetic consciousness, revealing allusions, prompting musings, deepening thought, and exploring hidden treasures as we accompany Clarissa Dalloway during her famous Hours. This book is a non-academic, non-critical essay, and is intended to help illuminate and enliven the text for readers who love Virginia Woolf and Clarissa Dalloway, and want to spend some time in that fanciful, brilliant, intense world of post-Great War London.

156 pages, Paperback

Published May 1, 2020

About the author

Mary Burns’ debut historical novel J-THE WOMAN WHO WROTE THE BIBLE was published in July 2010 by O-Books (John Hunt Publishers, UK). Her second novel, PORTRAITS OF AN ARTIST about the 19th century portrait artist John Singer Sargent, was published by Sand Hill Review Press in 2013. This was followed by her Sargent/Paget Mystery series: THE SPOILS OF AVALON, THE LOVE FOR THREE ORANGES, and THE UNICORN IN THE MIRROR. #4 is on the way! Other literary novels include EMBER DAYS, OF RIPENESS & THE RIVER; and a non-fiction literary essay/exploration "Reading Mrs. Dalloway".

BLOGS: Literary Reviews Blog and Portraits of an Artist and
Sargent-Paget Mysteries

Ms. Burns was born in Chicago, Illinois, grew up in the western suburb of LaGrange, and attended Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, where she earned both Bachelors and Masters degrees in English, along with a high school teaching certificate. She relocated to San Francisco in 1976 where she now lives with her husband Stuart in the West Portal neighborhood. Ms. Burns has a law degree from Golden Gate University, has been president of her neighborhood association and is active in citywide issues. During most of her working career she was employed as a director of employee communications, public relations and issues management at various SF Bay Area corporations, was an editor and manager of the Books on Tape department for Ignatius Press, and has managed her own communications/PR consulting business as well, producing written communications, websites and video productions for numerous corporate and non-profit clients.

Reviews

[Elise Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

I regarded Mary F. Burns’s volume, Reading Mrs. Dalloway, as a personal memoir, written by the essayist with her own delightful command of language. It is the “story” of Burns’s reading of Virginia Woolf’s 1925 celebrated, complex and masterful contribution to the British literary canon. As expected in any literary essay, Burns makes references to classical works, other literature that would have been available to Woolf, and to Woolf’s own life. These references are specific to the section-by-section analysis. I felt as though I were peeking over the Woolf’s shoulder as she considered her images and references, and shaped this timeless work and it’s especially engaging central character, Clarissa Dalloway.
However, Burns’ primary contribution here is to make us relate to Mrs. Dalloway, both the novel and the character, in such a personal way. To think, as Burns says, “…if I had known such-and-such, I would never have…? How differently we might have lived, or loved!” This is only one example of many where I found myself pausing to consider, as both authors would have wanted me to, what this situation, in this book, might teach me. How does my life relate to the character’s, the author’s, and ultimately, to the literary essayist’s?
If you haven’t yet read Mrs. Dalloway, I recommend reading it section by section, with Burns’ volume on your desk right next to Woolf’s. If you have read it recently enough to recall its characters and its trajectory, then do read this essay, because it may send you to the library or your shelves to re-read it with a whole new perspective.