Clarissa Dalloway is a woman of high-society – vivacious, hospitable and sociable on the surface, yet underneath troubled and dissatisfied with her life in post-war Britain. This disillusionment is an emotion that bubbles under the surface of all of Woolf’s characters in Mrs Dalloway. Centred around one day in June where Clarissa is preparing for and holding a party, her interior monologue mingles with those of the other central characters in a stream of consciousness, entwining, yet never actually overriding the pervading sense of isolation that haunts each person.

One of Virginia Woolf’s most accomplished novels, Mrs Dalloway is widely regarded as one of the most revolutionary works of the 20th century in its style and the themes that it tackles. The sense that Clarissa has married the wrong person, her past love for another female friend and the death of an intended party guest all serve to amplify this stultifying existence.


克萊麗莎・戴洛維身處英國上流社會，外表熱情活力、喜愛交際的她，其實對於一戰後的生活感到煩躁不滿。本書中，作者吳爾芙筆下的角色，在各自光鮮亮麗的表面下都隱藏著對自身生活的失落不滿。故事敘述六月某日，克萊麗莎正籌備一場宴會，作者以意識流技巧來表達她內心獨白，與其他角色的思緒交雜纏繞 ，一股揮之不去的孤立感彌漫在每個角色心裡。

《戴洛維夫人》是維吉尼亞・吳爾芙成就最高的小說之一，書寫形式與描述題材也被視為二十世紀最具革命的著作之一。認為自己婚姻失敗的克萊麗莎、曾經愛慕的女性友人，以及某個派對賓客的意外死亡，這些看似不相關的事物卻讓克萊麗莎對自己無趣的生活，更覺深沉的失落。