7 - Mrs. Dalloway

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Annotated edition, Harcourt, 2005
225 pages
Date Completed: September 22, 2009

So this is the 28th book I've read this year! So much about this novel absolutely captivated me.

Let's start with the narrative. Although it had a penchant for becoming confusing at first, this version of stream-of-consciousness was by far the most intriguing I've ever encountered. Woolf seamlessly blends the thoughts of various characters throughout the narrative, so that the reader is presented with the thoughts of a variety of characters. We see the action occurring through the eyes of anyone: from Mrs. Dalloway herself to a random woman walking down a London sidewalk. One of my favorite instances of this occurs at the beginning of the novel when Mrs. Dalloway is walking through London. I had to basically approach the narrative in a whole new way because I'd never been exposed to anything written this way.

I fell in love with Mrs. Dalloway's character right from the start, when she decisively declares that she'll "buy the flowers herself." She's not passive; rather, it seems that she has verve and conviction without being a radical. It says a lot for her character.

I like the fact that Mrs. Dalloway is middle-aged (52, I think). According to my professor, it was revolutionary that a novel be told from the perspective of a woman this old, because most stories written in the 1920s from the point of view of a woman focused upon a young woman who was beautiful and would eventually end up with a husband. Mrs. Dalloway, on the other hand, has already grown up: she's no longer beautiful, she's married and is thus no longer "on the market," she's no longer desirable, and this novel is a beautiful depiction of what a typical day is like for her.

Nothing happens. She buys flowers, visits a friend, reminisces, and throws a party.

Throughout the novel, time continues to intrude. Time is unalterable, and it imposes constantly, so there's this kind of eerie undertone of mortality running throughout. Big Ben chiming over and over. Keeping the characters in check.

Attempting to find order in this chaos

I would just like to make it known that I have still been reading! It's just that I'm taking 19 credits of advanced classes this term and thus far have had no time to blog about individual books (or blog at all, really).

The books I've read thus far are:
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald (8/31/09)
Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson (9/9/09)
The Tale of King Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory (9/13/09)

I've also reread Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, but since they're rereads, they won't get individual blog posts. Whenever I get a free five minutes, I eagerly snatch at the opportunity to work on Prisoner of Azkaban. Right now, a light dose of Harry Potter is all I can handle when compared to reading Emerson, Malory, literary criticism, gender criticism, Woolf, and botany things.

As I've already had 2 stress-related ice cream emergencies this term, I can't say when I'll be able to return and do full-length blogs. Most of my time is allocated between classes, preparing for classes, stressing about classes, and friends/boyfriend. Probably on a weekend when I'm not in Vermont or at home I'll have time. But I haven't abandoned the blog, nor have I accumulated or purchased any more books. I shall return as soon as possible. In the meantime, all I can do is apologize for the current state of disarray that is Project Bibliophile.

6 - Nature

Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Penguin, 1981
668 pages (43)
Date Completed: September 9, 2009

I'm kind of notorious for a loathing of Emerson. However, the more I read by him, the more I come to a sense of tolerance toward him. Nature is one of the essays that converted me.

There are many ideas he presents throughout the essay that I really liked:

1. Nature should be prized: you should go out into the world and experience the world. It's impossible to experience the world through books alone.

2. Don't closet yourself in a library reading about people in the past and studying their work. Go forth into the world and create your own ideas. Allow some ideas to inspire you, but question everything. Don't just read for the sake of adopting someone else's ideas.

3. The individual is godlike.

4. There is potential in the future. We rely on the thoughts and ideas of the past (see #2), but we should instead be making our own thoughts and ideas. We've become too bound to our past.

5. Nature is everything outside yourself. Remain open-minded about those things that aren't you.

6. Being obsessed with material commodities corrupts you and keeps you away from the spiritual.

7. There is a great sense of individuality in the essay. You can't just get together in a group and say "ok, let's go transcend!" Transcendentalism is an individual quest.

8. It relates a lot to Plato's allegory of the cave.

9. You have to survive and live in the world, but transcend and break away sometimes. Living in the world doesn't mean you're of that world.


Some aspects of Nature seem pretty idealistic, and there's always the annoying fact that Emerson's works are basically compilations of quotes, but I can buy some of what he says.