"Mrs Dalloway" rightfully holds its place in literary history - form and structure, "stream of consciousness", female voice, depiction of mental illness. While I was reading, I had the impression of witnessing something vast and new (for the time) - maybe I had just read too much about it before. This portrayal of a day in 1923 London is remarkable, and after a bit the "stream of consciousness" becomes easier to follow.

I did struggle, though, as the fact that it took me nearly a week to finish this short book illustrates. Often I found myself re-reading paragraphs or pages because I felt I had missed something. The mix of peculiar form (of the quickly shifting perspective) and unusual vocabulary (everyday life & the most personal thoughts of the 1920s British upper-middle class) had my head spinning more than once.

What struck me most while I was reading was the gripping, painful portrayal of mental illness in one of the protagonists. Those parts will stay with me for a long time.

While the sheer reading pleasure was not exactly overwhelming, I am nevertheless glad I did read "Mrs Dalloway": It is a unique journey into the mind of several (many!) 1920s Londoners, and contained so much "food for thought" that I will not be looking at more of Virginia Woolf's texts for now - I am still quite full. I am curious to discover other parts of her work in the future.