Virginia Woolf

Mrs Dalloway in Bond Street Virginia Woolf

Mrs Dalloway in Bond Street by Virginia Woolf

Clarissa Dalloway walks around London in the morning, preparing to host a party that evening. Her beautiful day reminds her of her youth spent in the countryside at Bourton and makes her question the choice of her husband; she married the trustworthy Richard Dalloway instead of the enigmatic and demanding Peter Walsh, and "didn't have the chance" to be with a close friend, Sally Seton. Peter reintroduces these conflicts by paying a visit that morning.

Septimus Warren Smith, a WWI veteran suffering from deferred traumatic stress, spends the day in the park with his Italian-born wife Lucrezia, where Peter Walsh watches them. Septimus is visited by frequent and indecipherable hallucinations, especially concerning his dear friend Evans, who died in the war. Later that same day, after being prescribed involuntary admission to a psychiatric hospital, he commits suicide by jumping out of a window.

Clarissa's evening party is a slow hit. She is frequented by most of the characters we've met throughout the book, including people from her past. She learns of Septimus' suicide at the party and gradually she comes to admire this stranger's act, which she considers an effort to preserve the purity of her happiness.