Mrs Dalloway » (Unabridged, 6 CDs, 7 hrs 30 min)

The early decades of the 20th century saw the rise of the experimental novel, and few writers had more success with their experiments than Virginia Woolf. Her innovative approach as a novelist, critic, and biographer made her an author who is even more widely read today than she was in her own time.

In this vivid portrait of one day in a woman’s life, Clarissa Dalloway is preoccupied with the last-minute details of a party she is to give that evening, while in her mind she is much more than a perfect society hostess. As she readies her house she is flooded with memories and, met with the realities of the present, Clarissa re-examines the choices she has made, hesitantly looking ahead to growing old. Undeniably triumphant, this is the inspired novelistic outline of human consciousness.

Publishers Weekly

As Clarissa Dalloway prepares to host a party in 1920s London, she is unexpectedly reunited with her old friend Peter Walsh in a novel that shifts among the inner monologues of its many characters and is darkened by the terrors and hallucinations of parallel protagonist Septimus Smith. Juliet Stevenson’s performance--with its lyricism and lilt--is perfectly matched to Woolf’s text and transports the listener. Stevenson produces a delightful range of distinct voices--her introspective, fragile Clarissa and stormy Peter are particularly strong. (May)