SubscribeIt’s Random Monday again, and for those who couldn’t join me on the last two Mondays, this is what happens. I go to random.org, and get a random number between 1 and 1667. These numbers correlate to the books in my library on LibraryThing. I then match the random number to the relevant book in my library, and talk about it. Simples.
Today’s random number is 1628. This means that I’ll be talking about…
Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
In particular, my lovely 1942 Hogarth Press edition of Mrs Dalloway. Now, regular readers will know that this is one of my two very favourite novels. I first read it at university, and I have to admit that my first encounter with it, aged 19, didn’t enthuse me. I couldn’t get along with it at all, but then, it was my first real experience of her celebrated stream of consciousness writing, and I wasn’t prepared for it at all. In my fourth and final undergraduate year, however, I had to read it again as part of a Modernism module, and this time I was a bit more clued in about what to expect. This time, I loved it. I loved it so much that I started reading it again as soon as I’d finished it. Then I wrote a bloody good essay on it, if I do say so myself. 
Anyway, since then, it’s been a constant companion. I turn to it every so often just to read a few pages, and in fact I’ve recently been thinking about reading the whole novel again. It’s been three years since my last reading! I’ve lost count of the number of people I have pressed it on, and unsurprisingly I now have four copies of my own. One of them is this one, my favourite.
Not only is it amazing for a book geek like me to own a Hogarth edition at all, but this has extra sentimental value for me as it was a present from my fiance the second Christmas we were together. I also have Hogarth editions of Orlando, Night and Day, and The Years. Lovely.
I do love this feature; I think I have mentioned that before but it bears repeating.
Perhaps it has to do with us being at the same university and Mrs Dalloway being prescribed reading for young undergraduates but I was also less enthused the first time around; I grew to appreciate it and later love it after I studied it some more and reading The Hours by Michael Cunningham definitely helped.