The History of Literature, Episode 735: Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (with Mark Hussey) | My Last Book with Graham Watson

Release date: September 22, 2025
Host: Jacke Wilson
Guests: Mark Hussey; Graham Watson
Podcast Network: The Podglomerate

Overview

This episode of The History of Literature dives into Virginia Woolf’s modernist masterpiece Mrs. Dalloway in honor of the novel’s 100th publication anniversary. Host Jacke Wilson is joined by distinguished Woolf scholar Mark Hussey, author of Mrs Dalloway: Biography of a Novel, for an illuminating discussion of Woolf’s life, her artistic intentions with the novel, and its critical legacy. The episode concludes with the recurring "My Last Book" segment, featuring Brontë biographer Graham Watson, who chooses Woolf’s diaries as his final read, offering insight into their literary and personal significance.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Virginia Woolf’s Place in Literary History

• Wilson opens by celebrating the enduring power of Mrs. Dalloway and Woolf’s uniquely vivid portrayal of inner life.
  • "It's one thing to say you're going to write in a stream of consciousness style... It's another thing to fill your pages with sentences like this one: 'She had the perpetual sense... of being out, out, far out to sea and alone.'" (04:00)
• Francesca Wade’s Guardian article guide on “Where to Start with Virginia Woolf” is discussed, with Mrs. Dalloway recommended as the entry point for readers drawn to explorations of self and society. (14:00–17:00)

2. Mark Hussey on Discovering and Teaching Woolf

• Hussey shares his 50-year relationship with Woolf’s work, beginning with To the Lighthouse during his high school years.
  • "It's a book that I find is very significant in her treatment of just what it's like to experience being human. And that's really what drew me to Woolf, I think." (22:40)
• He reflects on evolving student responses, noting increased empathy for Septimus Smith in recent decades due to greater awareness of trauma and PTSD.
  • "I've noticed... students... very much responded to her depiction of Septimus Warren Smith, who is a traumatized war veteran... (PTSD) is so commonly talked about that I think it became easier..." (25:00)

3. Woolf’s Artistic and Personal Context

• When writing Mrs. Dalloway, Woolf was coming into her own voice, feeling confident in her experimental approach after Jacob’s Room.
  • "I've discovered at the age of 40, how to say something in my own voice..." (paraphrased from Woolf, 27:00)
• Woolf’s challenges with self-confidence are explored, including societal limitations on women and dismissive contemporaries, e.g., Arnold Bennett’s criticism.
  • "She is unconfident, I would say, probably because she knows what she's doing is not going to be understood by many people." (33:00)

4. The Artistic Project of Mrs. Dalloway

• Woolf aimed both to criticize the social system and to depict “the world seen by the sane and insane side by side”—embodied by Clarissa and Septimus.
  • "She wants to criticize the social system... and she wants to show the world seen by the sane and the insane side by side." (38:44)
• The novel set itself against "materialist" fiction by focusing on interiority, what Woolf called "the dark places of psychology."
  • "What people are interested in now is what goes on inside our heads... rather than pages and pages of description." (41:00)

5. Characters and Sources of Inspiration

• Clarissa Dalloway first appeared in Woolf’s debut novel; her character draws both from a real-life friend and Woolf’s own sensibilities (her attraction to and ambivalence about parties, for example).
  • "Clarissa was modeled on a childhood friend... but the Clarissa of Mrs. Dalloway... is a more complex character." (45:30)
• Woolf's “frock consciousness” (the psychological impact of dress and presentation) is discussed along with the influence of Woolf’s circle and social position. (47:00–50:00)

6. Woolf’s Modernist Approach to Time & Memory

• The narrative structure is intricately linked to modernism’s concern with subjective time—external time marked by Big Ben, internal time experienced through memory.
  • "Time is experienced so differently than how the clock measures it out… We are immersed in the consciousness of this woman of 52, simultaneously with the 18 year old version of her." (50:49, 70:47)

7. Publication Reception and Changing Reputation

• Initial reception (1925) praised Woolf’s innovation but often misunderstood or ignored Septimus’s storyline, reading the novel largely as a subtle love story.
  • "A lot of the reviews tended to think of it as almost sort of a love story... They didn't really understand what was going on with Septimus." (54:25)
• Over time, feminist critics and shifting social awareness transformed Woolf’s reputation into that of an icon and central modernist figure.

8. The Enduring Appeal and Influence of Mrs. Dalloway

• The novel’s lasting popularity is attributed to its depth, its manageable structure (a single day), the mystery of Septimus and Clarissa’s connection, and its invitation to reader collaboration and interpretation.
  • "You can read it again and again, and it's like turning a crystal in the light. It will catch different glints each time." (68:56)

9. Everyday Life and Literary Epiphany

• The significance of “ordinary” days, and how Woolf reveals their extraordinariness through psychological immersion.
  • "Life doesn't happen always in big moments. It's also there in the small, ordinary moments of every day." (74:00)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the challenge and reward of Woolf’s style:
  "It's very difficult to pull out, you know, a quote because you're thinking, okay, I'll start here. But then—oh, it's so seamless, it feels sort of damaging to cut it off."
  —Mark Hussey (50:29)

• On what modernist fiction should achieve:
  "What she called the cotton wool of everyday life... what she found frustrating about the previous generation of novelists is that they were so focused on getting from tea to dinner... That's not really giving us who these people are."
  —Mark Hussey (72:00)

• On the book’s generative and collaborative power:
  "Reading fiction is a kind of collaboration between the writer and the reader... it does invite you to the party, in a sense."
  —Mark Hussey (68:30)

• On why Mrs. Dalloway persists:
  "It's a novel that examines the psychological aspects in such depth, and has this sort of mystery of what is this connection between Septimus and Clarissa... You can read it again and again, and it's like turning a crystal in the light."
  —Mark Hussey (68:56)

Important Timestamps

• Opening — Setting the theme, Mrs. Dalloway’s 100th anniversary: 03:00–06:30
• Francesca Wade’s reading roadmap for Virginia Woolf: 14:00–17:00
• Introducing Mark Hussey and his Woolf scholarship: 21:14–21:46
• Hussey on first reading Woolf (1972): 21:48–23:19
• Woolf’s growing critical reputation, feminist studies: 23:55–25:56
• Woolf’s personal and creative context during Mrs. Dalloway: 26:59–29:17
• Jacob’s Room as a modernist breakthrough: 29:23–31:08
• Discussion on Woolf’s psychological struggles, standing among contemporaries: 31:39–38:38
• Artistic vision for Mrs. Dalloway: 38:46–43:38
• Clarissa Dalloway’s origins & influences: 45:26–50:49
• Discussion on modernist time and memory: 50:49–54:25
• Reception in 1925 and shifting interpretations: 54:25–59:36
• Why Mrs. Dalloway remains influential: 61:45–70:47
• Woolf’s interest in ordinary moments and how they’re made extraordinary: 70:47–74:21

My Last Book with Graham Watson

Segment (77:03–83:54)

• Graham Watson’s choice: The Diary of Virginia Woolf
  • "It's full of love, light and color. It's full of changing moods and sensations. It's beautiful. It brings continual joy to anyone who reads it... It also maps Virginia Woolf's struggle with mental illness." (77:23)
• **Wilson & Watson discuss Woolf as a reader and critic, her interest in unearthing women’s voices from the literary past, and her unfinished project Anon on anonymous writers and erasure from the canon.
• "She was absolutely, passionately interested in the details of other people's lives... she wanted to bring that out and say, it's also valuable." —Graham Watson (81:10)

Tone & Style

Jacke Wilson’s warm, engaging style encourages rich, accessible literary exploration. The episode blends personal reflections with rigorous scholarship, demystifying Woolf’s experimental genius while making her work inviting to newcomers and long-time fans alike.

Key Takeaways

• Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway is a modernist experiment in depicting consciousness, connecting the "sane and insane" in post-WWI England.
• The novel’s initial mixed reception evolved as feminist criticism and cultural shifts highlighted its depths and relevance, particularly regarding trauma.
• Clarissa Dalloway, both as an individual and as an archetype, resists easy categorization and invites endless interpretation—a fact central to the book’s enduring appeal.
• Woolf’s revolutionary focus on interiority changed the novel’s possibilities, granting legitimacy to the minutiae and flux of daily life.
• The episode’s closing segment on Woolf’s diaries underscores their richness as a literary long-term project and testament to the value of everyday existence and of reading itself.

For newcomers: This episode provides a thoughtful, approachable roadmap into Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway, and the joys of literary discovery.