Mrs. Dalloway (Annotated) Read online

  [>] sentries at St. James’s: Guards at one of the principal royal palaces, constructed by King Henry VIII, located on St. James’s Street.

  [>] Queen Alexandra: (1844–1925), widow of King Edward VII, lived in Marlborough House, where her own police would have been on duty.

  [>] Victoria, billowing: Memorial to the queen, whose matronly sculpture sits surrounded by allegorical figures and basins of cascading water. Designed by Sir Thomas Brock, it was dedicated in 1911. It is positioned outside the main entrance to Buckingham Palace. Richard Dalloway also makes note of it (114).

  [>] the Mall: Wide tree-lined avenue on northern side of St. James’s Park, suitable for ceremonial processions from Buckingham Palace to the Admiralty Arch. The name comes from the game, pail-mail, played there with ball and mallet (hence “mall”), in the reign of Charles II.

  [>] Queen’s old doll’s house: Queen Mary was given a grand doll house, meticulously furnished with British goods (one inch to the foot), designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens in 1923. It was thus new at the time of the novel. Still on display at Windsor Palace.

  [>] Princess Mary . . . the Prince: Princess Mary (1897–1965) was the only daughter of the royal family. Her marriage to Viscount Lascelles occurred in 1922. Prince Edward is compared to Edward VII (1841–1910).

  [>] Mr. Bowley: Character recycled from Jacob’s Room, where he is also out for a walk. His residence, the Albany, housed prominent politicians and writers. He sights the mysterious motorcar turning onto the Mall, moving toward Buckingham Palace [map 8M]. At this point an airplane distracts viewers of the motorcar, and is visible simultaneously from this and other points.

  [>] bronze heroes: Sculpture associated with the Royal Artillery Monument (1910), in memory of soldiers fallen in South African and Chinese wars (1889–1902).

  [>] letting out white smoke from behind: Michael North gives a detailed account of the first ever demonstration of skywriting, which occurred over London in 1922, and notes Woolf’s use of the occasion in her novel (Reading 1922: A Return to the Scene of the Modern [New York: Oxford University Press, 1999], 81–84).

  [>] Glaxo: Brand name for a babies’ formula milk product (DB). Its ads must have succeeded, because the firm grew into a large international pharmaceutical company that still exists.

  [>] Regent’s Park . . . Broad Walk: Large circular park, part of a garden suburb of town houses designed by John Nash (1812), and named for the prince regent (later George IV). In the Marylebone district, north of the areas of London explored to this point. Its widest pedestrian walkway runs north—south through the eastern part of the park [map 9S]. The airplane is visible from here as well.

  [>] her sisters: While this suggests that Rezia had multiple sisters, Septimus later recalls marrying the younger daughter, implying she had only one sister (85).

  [>] the Indian and his cross: The Victorian Gothic drinking fountain resembles a cross. To one side is a sacred cow under a palm tree. Its fulsome inscription, dating from 1869, expresses the gratitude of its donor, Sir Cowasjee Jehangir, for the protection British rule gave to himself and other Parsees in India. By 1923, Indians were strongly urging self-government. The Amritsar Massacre (April 1919), in which British troops slaughtered unarmed protesters in that Punjabi city (now in Pakistan), created intense anti-British attitudes. The Government of India Act (December 23, 1919) created a dyarchy. Mohandas Gandhi founded the first Non-cooperation Movement (1920–22) in protest to British rule.

  [>] Romans saw it . . . darkness: Romans occupied various parts of Britain during the years A.D. 43 to 410. There is an echo of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, which also looks back to the Roman era. Woolf admired Conrad’s work and wrote relevant essays and reviews, most notably, “Mr. Conrad: A Conversation” (1923).

  [>] sparrow . . . to sing . . . in Greek words: Septimus’s perceptions of a sparrow singing in Greek resembles Woolf’s own experience of birds singing Greek choruses to her during her 1904 mental breakdown.

  [>] Zoo: Collection of the Zoological Society of London, opened in Regent’s Park in 1828. Woolf visited the zoo from childhood onward and wrote about its aquarium in “The Sun and the Fish” (1928).

  [>] cricket stumps: Three posts, driven into the ground, which together with two horizontal pieces (bails) form the wicket defended by the batsman, who stands before it in the game of cricket.

  [>] Tube station: Subway station.

  [>] up from Edinburgh: Although the Scottish capital is far north of London, it is customary in England to say one is traveling “up” to London, wherever one is coming from.

  [>] Bath chairs: Wheeled and hooded chairs used by invalids.

  [>] Kentish Town: District in north London, inhabited by the working class in the 1920s.

  [>] Margate: Seaside resort in Kent, seventy-six miles east of London.

  [>] Greenwich: Borough of southeast London, south of the Thames, where the Royal Observatory (source of Greenwich Mean Time) and Royal Naval College are located.

  [>] St. Paul’s and the rest: Of the many churches visible to the rising airplane, the most prominent would be St. Paul’s, the Renaissance-style domed Cathedral of the Bishop of London, designed by Sir Christopher Wren and completed in 1710.

  [>] Mendelian theory: Concerns inherited biological traits. The Moravian monk Gregor Johann Mendel (1822–1884) conducted his experiments by cross-pollinating peas.

  [>] Ludgate Circus: Traffic circle where Ludgate Hill meets Fleet Street, west of St. Paul’s.

  [>] Baron Marbot’s Memoirs: Jean-Baptiste-Antoine de Marbot (1782–1854), French general who accompanied Napoléon on his retreat from Moscow in 1812. Clarissa would probably have read from a one-volume translation of the original three-volume work, published in French (1891).

  [>] woods at Clieveden: Woods at Cliveden (note spelling), scenic forest on one of the most beautiful and popular stretches of the Thames, north of London beyond Maidenhead. The country home of the Astor family, Cliveden, is set nearby. Nancy Astor (first woman member of Parliament, 1919–45) and others of the “Cliveden set” urged appeasement of the Fascists in the 1930s.

  [>] Constantinople: Ancient Byzantine city, with the Hagia Sophia (church and mosque in various eras) its architectural wonder, now capital of Turkey. Called Constantinople from A.D. 330, after Roman Emperor Constantine. Resumed Byzantine name, Istanbul (1926). Visited by Woolf (1906). Clarissa thinks of this failure again (115).

  [>] The Mannings: In Woolf’s 1927 novel, To the Lighthouse, Mrs. Ramsay recalls going on the river at the Mannings’ house twenty years earlier (89–90).

  [>] Marie Antoinette: Austrian-born Queen of France (1755–1793), wife of King Louis XVI, known for her extravagance, guillotined during the French Revolution.

  [>] William Morris: Poet, leader of and designer for the Arts and Crafts Movement, socialist activist (1834–1896). Sally might have favored his socialist utopian works, A Dream of John Ball (1888) and News from Nowhere (1891).

  [>] Plato: Greek philosopher (c. 429–347 B.C.). His ideal state is described in the Republic.

  [>] Shelley: Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822), English Romantic poet. Some of his writings, such as Prometheus Unbound (1820), inspired political radicals.

  [>] cut their heads off: Woolf noted that her sister, Vanessa Bell, engaged in this same unorthodox form of flower arrangement (Diary 2: 260).

  [>] “if it were now to die . . . most happy”: Clarissa’s quote from Shakespeare’s Othello, Act II, Scene i, comes as Othello is reunited with Desdemona. She thinks of it again on learning of Septimus’s death (see 180).

  [>] air ball: Toy balloon.

  [>] Brahms: Johannes Brahms (1833–1897), German Romantic composer.

  [>] Caterham: Town in county of Surrey, south of London.

  [>] Ealing: District in west London.

  [>] Hatfield: Jacobean mansion in Hertfordshire built for Sir Robert Cecil in 1608.

  [>] Indian Army: British Army stationed in India.

  [
>] sent down from Oxford: Expelled from the university.

  [>] Lincoln’s Inn: One of the four Inns of Court, established in the thirteenth century, which provide the legal center of London. Located in central London, south of High Holborn Street and north of the Thames.

  [>] Leith Hill: The highest place in southeast England, in Surrey, south of London, famous for its view and paths through woods full of rhododendrons and bluebells.

  [>] coolies: Native unskilled laborers—the term applied to workers from India as well as from China.

  [>] St. Margaret’s: The bells of the parish church of Westminster, on Parliament Square, which dates back to 1485 [map 10P].

  [>] Whitehall: Originally the setting of the royal palace of Whitehall, this half mile between Westminster and Charing Cross has since the seventeenth century been the center of government.

  [>] Duke of Cambridge: Equestrian statue by Adrian Jones (1907) commemorating George, second Duke of Cambridge (1819–1904), a cousin of Queen Victoria and commander in chief of the British Army (1856–95).

  [>] Finsbury Pavement to the empty tomb: The soldiers will return to an area in the district of Moorfields after placing their wreath at the Cenotaph, a memorial to the fallen warriors of World War I. Designed by Lutyens and completed in 1920, it sits in Whitehall [map 11P].

  [>] Nelson, Gordon, Havelock, the black: Military heroes whose statues are in Trafalgar Square. Horatio Nelson (1758–1805), the victor at the Battle of Trafalgar, has the tallest memorial. His statue by E. H. Baily (1843) stands atop a 145-foot column. The bronze statue of Charles George Gordon (1833–1885), who died in the Siege of Khartoum, has since been removed. The service of Henry Havelock (1795–1857) as a general in wars in Burma, Afghanistan, and India is commemorated in a bronze statue on the east side of Nelson’s column. He perished of dysentery after capturing Lucknow during the Indian Mutiny. The statues appear black, in silhouette [map 12P].

  [>] the Strand: Street running east from Trafalgar Square toward the City of London. Its formerly lively character was hailed in the music-hall song “Let’s All Go Down the Strand.” Elizabeth Dalloway visits this part of London later in the day.

  [>] the Haymarket: Site of a sixteenth-century haymarket, this street runs from Coventry Street to Pall Mall. Notable theaters and the Royal Opera arcade are located here.

  [>] Cockspur Street: Part of Peter’s route in pursuit of an attractive young woman. Woolf may mischievously have chosen a street with a “cock” in it [map 13P]. The young woman takes Peter up Regent Street (52–53) and into Great Portland Street (53), in the direction of Regent’s Park [map 14–15P].

  [>] an absurd statue: Perhaps the Matilda fountain, with its bronze figure of a milkmaid perched on rocks, shielding her eyes as if to look into the distance. Peter settles on a bench near the Smiths [map 16P].

  [>] Wickham: Clarissa may be thinking of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and the officer who runs off with Lydia Bennett but is reluctant to marry her until persuaded to do so by Mr. Darcy—not a promising name for a suitor.

  [>] his watch to blow open: Possibly a pocket watch with a cover. One could release the catch to the cover as a child blew upon it, as a game.

  [>] Hampton Court: Palace whose most famous resident was Henry VIII. He confiscated the site from Cardinal Wolsey, who had started building there in 1514. Architecture includes Tudor gatehouse and east and south wings designed by Christopher Wren. Favorite destination for day trips, open to the public since Victoria’s time.

  [>] Thessaly: Area in northern Greece.

  [>] water-closets: Flush toilets.

  [>] Manchester: Large industrial city in Lancashire, in the north of England, where cotton mills flourished.

  [>] women’s rights (that antediluvian topic): The British suffrage movement obtained the vote for women thirty and older in 1918. But the topic was hardly antediluvian, as women twenty-one to twenty-nine had to wait until 1928 for the vote.

  [>] “those poor girls in Piccadilly”: Prostitutes.

  [>] British Empire, tariff-reform, governing-class spirit: Evidence of Richard’s conservatism. Tariff reform would have been protective of British goods.

  [>] Morning Post: Peter assumes Richard would read this extremely conservative newspaper, though he actually reads the Times (DB).

  [>] Huxley and Tyndall: Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895), biologist and great communicator on Darwin’s theory of evolution. He was a friend of Woolf’s father and both were agnostics. John Tyndall (1820–1893), physicist, adept at communicating scientific discoveries, including his own, concerning radiant heat.

  [>] Elizabeth was “out”: Peter presumes that in her elite social set, Elizabeth would by now have been presented at Court, and would be participating in an active social season, as would a debutante.

  [>] the battered woman: Woolf describes seeing a blind beggar woman, clasping her dog and singing, on June 8, 1920 (Diary 2: 47): “It was gay, & yet terrible & fearfully vivid.” Her song’s evocation of a dead lover returning as on All Souls’ Day has been likened by J. Hillis Miller to the Richard Strauss song “Allerseelen.” She is located near the Regent’s Park tube station [map 17P]. Septimus and Rezia Smith also pass the beggar (80) [map 17S].

  [>] “Poor old woman”: Woolf marked her American proofs “leave 2 lines white” above this. The intended break was hitherto masked by the inset quotation, above.

  [>] holland bags: Bags made of a cotton treated with an opaque finish, and thus impermeable to dust that might accumulate on chandeliers.

  [>] Parley: Unremarkable town in Surrey, south of London.

  [>] Stroud: Market town and a center for the cloth industry in Gloucestershire. Woolf vacationed as a girl in Painswick (1897)—a much more scenic Cotswold setting three miles beyond Stroud. Her family’s train journey terminated in Stroud, where they returned repeatedly for bicycle repairs and to bring additional visitors from the train by pony cart.

  [>] Euston Road: Busy road bordering Bloomsbury, close to a major train station.

  [>] Waterloo Road: Runs south from the Thames through what was a working-class district in the 1920s. Miss Pole, like Virginia Woolf (1905–07), taught at Morley College, which held evening classes in the Old Vic Theatre on this road.

  [>] Keats: John Keats (1795–1821), English late Romantic poet. In The Voyage Out, the early Clarissa Dalloway recites lines from “Adonais,” Shelley’s elegy for Keats (58).

  [>] The History of Civilisation, and Bernard Sham: Thomas Henry Buckle’s two-volume work (1857–61) drew attention to the effect of the environment on civilization. George Bernard Shaw was known for his Fabian socialism expressed in essays as well as plays.

  [>] Ceres: Ancient Roman goddess of agriculture, the Roman counterpart to the Greek goddess Demeter.

  [>] Muswell Hill: Residential area in northern London.

  [>] Dante: Dante Alighieri (1265–1321), Italian poet best known for The Divine Comedy (1321). The Inferno, representing Hell, is the first of its three parts. The journey progresses to Purgatory and, finally, Paradise.

  [>] Soho: Central London district north of Shaftesbury Avenue, known since the flight there of French refugees in 1685 for its cosmopolitan atmosphere. Sex shops and film companies have now joined bakeries, delicatessens, and continental restaurants.

  [>] Newhaven: Port at mouth of River Ouse, Sussex, near the Woolfs’ house at Rodmell. The Smiths may have arrived in England at this port, as newlyweds.