A collectible hardcover edition of Virginia Woolf's engulfing portrait of one day in a woman's
life featuring a foreword by Jenny Offill the New York Times bestselling author of Weather
and Dept. of Speculation A Penguin Vitae Edition "Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the
flowers herself." It's one of the most famous opening lines in literature that of Virginia
Woolf's beloved masterpiece of time memory and the city. In the wake of World War I and the
1918 flu pandemic Clarissa Dalloway elegant and vivacious is preparing for a party and
remembering those she once loved. In another part of London Septimus Smith is suffering from
shell-shock and on the brink of madness. Their days interweave and their lives converge as the
party reaches its glittering climax. In a novel in which she perfects the interior monologue
and recapitulates the life cycle in the hours of the day from first light to the dark of night
Woolf achieves an uncanny simulacrum of consciousness bringing past present and future
together and recording impression by impression minute by minute the feel of life itself.
Penguin Vitae-loosely translated as "Penguin of one's life"-is a deluxe hardcover series from
Penguin Classics celebrating a dynamic and diverse landscape of classic fiction and nonfiction
from seventy-five years of classics publishing. Penguin Vitae provides readers with beautifully
designed classics that have shaped the course of their lives and welcomes new readers to
discover these literary gifts of personal inspiration intellectual engagement and creative
originality. Story Locale: London
