The Annotated Mrs. Dalloway (The Annotated Books) Hardcover – Illustrated, August 31, 2021

As I had never undertaken any of the works of Virginia Woolf in my past reading, I asked a book-astute friend for his recommendation. He immediately spoke up for “Mrs. Dalloway,” and, in fact, for this very edition of that novel. He also added, “There’s nothing like it.” This could be taken in several ways: Nothing like Virginia Woolf, nothing like “Mrs. Dalloway,” or nothing like this edition. I would say now that all three are true.This novel is, of course, available in many different editions. What sets this one apart are the annotations by Merve Emre. To call these “extensive” would be inadequate. They are a tour de force. As shown in the attached photo, the format of the book has Woolf’s text in a middle column, with Emre’s annotations in two columns on either side. Along with the annotations are period photos and paintings of people and places mentioned, plus maps of the peregrinations of the characters through London. All these additions are interesting, germane, and helpful to one’s appreciation of the novel.This leads me to my first recommendation: By all means, read Merve Emre’s 60-page introduction first; it is a graceful act of respect for, and devotion to, Woolf’s novel, and it is valuable to the reader who hasn’t experienced Woolf’s work.But then, when passing into the novel itself, see if you can commit to reading it twice: The first time, read it straight through, Woolf’s text only, assiduously ignoring the annotations. I say this because Emre’s additions are in themselves fascinating, especially to one of a historical bent, as am I. The hitch is that Woolf’s “stream of consciousness” brooks no inattention on the part of her reader. My stream of consciousness needed to be undistracted from hers. But there I was, adrift in the intriguing footnotes, and I realized that I had lost Woolf’s thread...which may be, let us be frank, illusive. I stopped, put my bookmark back at the beginning of Woolf’s text, and started over the next evening.And then, perhaps a few weeks later, after digestion, read the book again as I did, but this time with full attention to Emre’s annotations. I think this provides the maximum richness of experience. Now, see the places and people only alluded to, the paintings, the posters, the mapped courses of the characters across 1920s London.Woolf’s method is demanding of the reader. She is often oblique, and her allusiveness may seem contrived. It is not. I compare her to a contemporary with whom I have much more experience: Ernest Hemmingway. One might say that they are chalk and cheese, black and white, opposites. I think otherwise. After all, it was Hemmingway, the newspaperman, for whom we remember “iceberg theory,” the method in fiction of implying much by saying little, leaving it to the reader to see and hear the great bulk of experience which is not literally explained. With Virginia Woolf, too, we readers are responsible for filling in the blanks; we have the voices, even the accents, in our heads. With Woolf and with Hemmingway, it is in essence the same for us, however different: We are responsible. We complete the details, conjuring the unspoken depths of the relationships, or sometimes at least the shared experiences, of the characters.

Some years ago, never mind how long precisely, having nothing in particular to interest me, I thought I would embark on reading Mrs. Dalloway, since several friends recommended it to me as a work that everyone should read. And having just seen The Hours, I assumed that the book and the film would complement each other and cover the same plot. Alas, I was sadly mistaken when I found myself utterly mystified before covering less than a dozen pages. At this point I threw the book in a corner.But recently I was delighted to discover The Annotated Mrs. Dalloway, in the same series that covers Alice in Wonderland and a number of other classics. This book takes you by the hand and leads you through the maze that Virginia Woolf has constructed for you. This is not an easy book, even with annotations (think Joyce or Faulkner), but this edition explains the shifting narrators and the allusions, and how the book relates to Woolf's life. You will not get left behind. There are a few errors in the notes (Agamemnon is the first, not the second of the plays in the Oresteia) and sometimes it gets bogged down in irrelevancies (do we really need a lengthy account of the Suez Canal?) But I'm happy to say that I've now finished the book and I can understand why it's a classic.Beware. There are a number of recent editions of the book claiming to be "Annotated." Apparently anybody can claim that a work is annotated even if it just contains a brief biography of the author (or not even that). The one you want is the edition by Merve Emre.

I am really coming to appreciate Merve Emre’s very human intelligence at least as much as her meticulous scholarship… I have the sense that she comes to so deeply inhabit what she reads that it’s the piece of literature itself that writes the critical assessment.

bought as a gift for my mom who is a big fan of literature and she LOVED IT! thank you so much

This annotated edition made understanding the book much easier!

Further study

What an achievement! Fascinating notes and pictures, a thorough and captivating introduction - I've read Mrs. Dalloway multiple times before, and I never knew how many small details I missed. I cannot recommend this book enough!

I'm not a big fan of Virginia Woolf's style, so for me the annotations were the better part of the book. They add a fair amount of context and interesting trivia to what I find a tedious book. (I tend to want to respect or admire at least one person in a novel, and these characters are all rather despicable.)Two points should be noted about the annotations: they often come before the bit of text to which they refer, and their page references are often wrong. The fact that they come before the text means you will often find yourself trying to recall the referenced quote, only to find you haven't read it yet. It feels like watching a movie with an annoying friend who keeps saying "oh this next bit is my favorite part..." instead of waiting and telling you just afterward. I found it unpleasant. The frequency of incorrect page references compounded with the shotgun annotating style means you often are unsure if the referenced bit is something you've even read yet.The maps also have errors and conflict with each other, but this is minor.