Month: February 2023

A first edition of Mrs. Dalloway, from 1925.

As we will discuss in class, it is possible to map with precision the routes that various characters take through the novel on this Wednesday in June, 1923. I’ve found a couple websites that make interesting efforts:

This site, from the Viginia Woolf Society of Great Britain, gives us an incredibly precise, turn-by-turn recreation of the novel’s movements in the early sections. http://www.virginiawoolfsociety.org.uk/resources/a-mrs-dalloway-walk-in-london/

This site, which appears to have prepared for an undergraduate course at Georgia Institute of Technology, has multiple maps and good timelines for a number of characters. While the material included under “analysis” seems more like plot summary to me, the visuals here are worth a look–but be careful, since there are plot spoilers on the character pages. http://mrsdallowaymappingproject.weebly.com/index.html

Here’s what the original text looked like, with photographs from the Tate Gallery in London and a pdf link to a copy held by the University of Pennsylvania.

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/v/vorticism/blast-radical-vorticist-manifesto

Anyone want a field trip? This exhibit looks wonderful; the NYPL at 42nd St. has amazing archival material, specializing in British and American materials of the last 200 years. They even have 153 Woolf-related items in “The William Beekman Collection of Virginia Woolf and Her Circle,” from manuscripts to letters and artwork; the general collection has her walking stick and family portraits.

More info here: https://www.nypl.org/events/exhibitions/virginia-woolf

Students who visit the site and send a picture of their favorite part of the exhibition will have 5 points added to their semester’s total.