'She felt very young; at the same time unspeakably aged.'

A SUMMARY of the first twenty-five pages of 'Mrs Dalloway'

Hello friends!

In this post, I’ll give a SUMMARY of the first twenty-five pages of Mrs Dalloway (up to the line break which occurs after the sky-writing plane writes the letters, T, O and F; in other words, before Mrs Dalloway returns home from the florist). If you want a super stripped back summary, read only the italics. If you want a more detailed summary, read the full post. If you want a very very detailed view, read the book. All needs are catered for. That is the sort of service I offer.

My THOUGHTS and OBSERVATIONS about these first pages will come in a separate post tomorrow.

Key to abbreviations

D = Mrs Dalloway; PW = Peter Walsh; S = Septimus Warren Smith; R = Rezia (aka Lucrezia).

Summary of the first twenty-five pages

D leaves to buy flowers and bumps into Hugh Whitbread in St James Park.

D leaves her home in Westminster, London, to buy flowers for the party she is giving in the evening. As she is about to cross the road, Big Ben tolls. In St James Park, she runs into her very old friend Hugh Whitbread who confirms that he will be at her party that evening. They chat about the health of his wife (it’s implied Hugh’s wife has health issues associated with menopause). Hugh is a bit stuffy and mannered – both D’s husband and PW dislike him. She remembers PW judging her for liking a person like Hugh.

This sparks some memories of PW – a man D nearly married all those years ago.

D is aware of the vitality of London in June. She continues to reminisce about PW; their differences, their arguments, her sense that she made the right decision not to marry him (and to marry Richard Dalloway instead).

As she walks, D thinks about her daughter’s teacher, Miss Kilman, whom she dislikes.

D reaches the park gates and sees the omnibuses in Piccadilly. As she walks towards Bond Street, she begins to ruminate on mortality and death and finally looks in Hatchard’s shop window wondering if any of the books on display might be an appropriate gift for Hugh Whitbread’s wife but none look right. As she continues up Bond Street, she thinks of her daughter, Elizabeth; how different she and Elizabeth are; her daughter’s very religious schoolteacher Miss Kilman; and Miss Kilman’s hold over Elizabeth.

While D is at the florist, a car on the street backfires; in the car is someone of note.

D arrives at the florist. While she is inside being served by Miss Pym, a car backfires loudly on the street outside. The bang appears to have come from an official looking car. Immediately people all up and down the street wonder who is inside (the Prince of Wales? The Queen? The Prime Minister?)

S is on the street with his wife R; he hears the car but thinks everyone is looking at him.

We meet S for the first time. He is about thirty, wearing a shabby coat and is standing on the street with his wife R. He hears the car backfire. Everyone is looking at the car and traffic is banking up behind it. Having recently served in the War, S is suffering from PTSD and is mentally unwell. He becomes confused and believes he is blocking the way rather than the car – that everyone is looking and pointing at him. His young Italian wife R is lonely and struggling to deal with S’s mental illness.

As the car passes down the street, it creates a ripple in the crowds of people.

D exits the florist and thinks the person in the car is probably the Queen. The car continues on its way, causing a ‘ripple’ to pass through the crowds of people in the street as they watch it or speculate about who is inside. The car drives across Piccadilly and turns down St James Street and a poor flower seller, Molly Pratt, sees it and is sure it’s the Prince of Wales. She almost throws one of her bunches of flowers in the street but for the presence of a constable watching her.

A crowd at the gates of Buckingham Palace spots the car but is distracted by a plane.

At the gates of Buckingham Palace a crowd is gathered. The car is approaching but then the crowd hears an aeroplane and looks up at the sky and the car passes through the gates without anyone noticing. The plane is writing letters in the sky and the crowd tries to guess what the letters say.

S and R move on to Regent’s Park where S behaves erratically. The plane continues to write letters in the sky.

R has moved S on to a park and points out the plane but S interprets the plane to be signalling to him and he cries. Sounds are heightened as S begins to lose a sense of the borderlines of his self. R tries to rein in S’s strange behaviour. She remembers that Dr Holmes said that there was nothing the matter with S. She misses her home in Italy and finds England foreign and meagre.

S thinks the birds are singing in Greek.

S’s mind is full of broken insights. He is channelling messages and information. He thinks the birds are singing in Greek. He thinks he sees Evans, a man he served with in the war who was killed.

A young woman asks R and S the way and is frightened by their strange behaviour.

A young woman, Maisie Johnson, who is visiting London from Edinburgh asks R and S where the train station is. R and S respond strangely which gives Maisie a fright. The city feels scary to her and its strangeness is personified by R and S. This interaction is observed by an older woman at the park, Mrs Dempster, who recognises the young woman’s naivety and reminisces about her own long, hard life. She sees the plane and imagines its pilot as it flies over London. The plane is also observed by a Mr Bentley working in his garden in Greenwich. Meanwhile, a seedy looking man with a satchel full of pamphlets hesitates on the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral wondering whether to go in.

The plane appears overhead and writes a few more letters – T, O, F.

A few things to think about

There is really SO MUCH going on in these pages, but if you’re looking for lines of inquiry, you could choose any of the following:

• What we know of D at this point

• What we know of S and R at this point

• The depiction of crowds vs individuals

• The meaning of the car and the plane

• The depiction of S’s mental illness

• The shadow of recent war

• The peregrinations of the narrative voice (in and out of different heads, over the city of London)

• Representation of time (interlacing of present with visions of the past and even, at times, the future; the tolling at various moments of clocks – noting that the working title for this book was The Hours).

It’s also worth paying attention to depictions of flowers as the story progresses. They appear frequently as offerings. And, of course, there is that famous first line. I don’t have any grand theories on flowers in Mrs Dalloway but I’m interested in hearing yours.

What’s next?

As noted above, I will post a few THOUGHTS and OBSERVATIONS about these first twenty-five pages tomorrow. Please add your own thoughts either here or there or both. Feel free to ask questions too – I probably won’t be able to answer them but perhaps someone clever will be reading and will enlighten us all.

Next read up to halfway by 14 JUNE if you can manage it. This is about where there is a line break and the next paragraph begins with – ‘It was precisely twelve o’clock; twelve by Big Ben…’ So stop at the line break. In other words, stop after the scenes between Septimus and Holmes.

And thank you!

Also, can I just say what a joy it was to read all of your excellent comments on my post last week about the first page. THANK YOU! I think I had been trying to keep my expectations low as this is a new newsletter and is still finding its readership – so it was a genuine surprise to receive such vigorous and good-quality engagement in the comments. Really, it made my day!

Please continue to be generous with your likes and replies to other comments. It’s always nice when some cross-pollination begins to occur and it’s not just me banging on. And, as always, it’s very fine and acceptable to read along without commenting. You are all welcome and valued members of the group!

Until very soon!