Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway (1925, Penguin Classics 2020)
I was listening to Christopher Lydon’s Open Source podcast when he interviewed Merve Emre, editor of The Annotated Mrs. Dalloway (Ms Emre is from the US, so her book adds a period to the novel’s name). Their enthusiasm for Woolf’s book made me realise it would be ideal one of my slow reads of the classics.
My introduction to the book was Stephen Daldry’s movie The Hours, which is based on Michael Cunningham’s novel of the same name and stars Nicole Kidman with a prosthetic nose. I’ve vaguely wanted to read Mrs Dalloway ever since, but been just as vaguely reluctant because of a general impression that the writing was beautiful but difficult.
So here goes. At three pages a day, it will probably take about two months. I don’t intend to delve into annotations and footnotes. Mercifully the copy I have from the library doesn’t have a learned introduction. Bearing in mind someone’s description of a classic as a work you cannot encounter for the first time, I’ll inevitably bring preconceptions to it, but I’ll try to read it as if it’s just a novel.
At this stage, six pages in, I’m loving it. I’m also glad I’m reading a few pages at a time, because – so far at least – I’d hate to be rushing it.
Me fail? I fly! 
I have a friend who reads it once every year. He is a great re reader of the classics and has a photographic memory so he does this purely for the pleasure it brings him. It is also his daughter’s favourite book and so a topic they discuss at length.
I bought it years ago and read it, forgot I had and so purchased another one this year. Second time around it did not pass my “take me beyond page 72” merit evaluation.
I feel your slow and absorptive method is an ideal solution to enjoy what to many is a classic.
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I hear you, Keith. I’m now roughly 48 pages in, and loving the book. But if I ry to imagine myself reading it like a normal novel, I have to admit I might have given up on it.
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I would like to do this with Mrs Dalloway one day too. I will watch your progress with interest.
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It turns out to be a perfect book for this way of reading, so far at least. Every page seems to be rich in a new way!
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I have been daunted by Virginia Woolf but everything seems to be conspiring to make me read her – the recent Secret Life of Books podcast series on her was pretty persuasive and then this morning an article in the LRB on books about Mrs Dalloway ended up being a lengthy (and fascinating) description of the book itself, with interesting comparisons to Emma which I happen to be (audio) reading at the moment. Also, we saw Orlando at Belvoir. I think, as others have said, your approach could be the way to go.
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That’s very like my own history with Virginia W, Kathy. And it’s amazing how she’s turning up everywhere now
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