Mrs Dalloway – Wilton’s Music Hall
Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway is a book with a formidable reputation. Its seismic cultural impact is still fascinating to ponder a century later. Occasionally, a work of art will emerge in society that causes a ripple on the lake of consciousness, creating waves for years to come. This novel falls into that rare category. Woolf isn’t the only one credited with heralding modernism, but she wears some very big boots in that department. Adding to Woolf’s power is the fact the Department of Modernism is mostly filled with men. As is life.
Woolf not only kicked against the patriarchy, but linked men’s power to the horrors of colonialism, war and poor mental health. Woolf may have pointed out the factually obvious, but it was almost unsayable at the time. The world woke up. Feminism, sexu...