Reviews with content warning for War - Mrs Dalloway

Reviews tagging 'War'

Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

30 reviews

pupaebug's review against another edition

challenging reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

This book was definitely not what I expected. Virginia Woolf's stream of consciousness writing style was very difficult to get used to at first. There is essentially no break at all in the narration. The perspective jumps from person to person every few pages. It is really unlike any book I've read before in that way. It was such an interesting introspective story about the infinite lives of every single person and all of their thoughts, their insecurities, and their fears that they experience in just one day. Every single person in this story, no matter how small their part, had a life, dreams, desires, motives, and struggles with living in 1920s England. And it was so cool the way the party represented life. How Clarissa's perfectly planned party was intruded with thoughts about a past love, old friends, politics, and even death, as these things creep up in our lives every day whether we welcome them or not.

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mookiana's review against another edition

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challenging reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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joensign's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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marageorge's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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allapaz's review against another edition

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4.75

this truly surprised me, i did not expect to enjoy this so much. to be fair, a good chunk of that is because i listened to the audiobook while reading this, and that was so much fun. woolf's stream-of-consciousness style is a ton easier to understand when someone is performing it for you on audio, and that for sure allowed me to just fly though this and be fully immersed.

everyone is so petty, lovelorn, funny, and interesting. the flashes of crazy dark thoughts and the septimus storyline gave such a valuable weight to the time and place of this novel. truly transportive.

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anam_victoria's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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gritsgritsgrits's review against another edition

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reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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toffishay's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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grereads's review against another edition

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challenging emotional inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I absolutely loved the book. The -0.5 stars is just because it was sometimes difficult to keep up with the narration, since it was my first time reading something written in stream of consciousness. I loved how the narration is presented through the thoughts of the different characters and how there are many different points of view. I also liked how the characters' personalities can be understood both through their own analysis of themselves and through what the other characters think of them. Septimus and Peter were characters that particularly impressed me. The passage about Sir. William Bradshaw and his love of proportion/conversion is one of the greatest pieces of writing I've ever read.

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alecjira's review against another edition

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reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Once you get used to Woolf's writing style, I think Mrs Dalloway is an incredibly interesting read. Reading it gave me insight into post-WW1 England, as well as the sheer numbing horror of war as seen by its affect on Septimus. Also, she does a spectacular job of illustrating the minute details of what goes on in a human mind over the course of time. I'm just not used to seeing this mapped out in fiction, and so it was jarring to read. Especially because of how un-tethered this makes the reader feel.

That being said though, I just generally tend to prefer novels that are more rooted in their characters and their characters' relationships, hence why this isn't one of my favourite novels of all time. Still a good one though.

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