Book Club: Let's Talk About 'Mrs. Dalloway" at 100

The Book Review

The New York Times

Books, Arts

4.2 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 27 June 2025

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself”: So reads one of the great opening lines in British literature, the first sentence of Virginia Woolf’s classic 1925 novel, “Mrs. Dalloway.” The book tracks one day in the life of an English woman, Clarissa Dalloway, living in post-World War I London, as she prepares for, and then hosts, a party. That’s pretty much it, as far as the plot goes. But within that single day, whole worlds unfold, as Woolf captures the expansiveness of human experience through Clarissa’s roving thoughts. On this week’s episode, Book Club host MJ Franklin discusses it with his colleagues Joumana Khatib and Laura Thompson.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Gilbert Cruz, editor of the New York Times book review, and this is the book review podcast.
0:12.8	This week, we come to you with our monthly book club roundtable hosted, as always, by M.J. Franklin.
0:19.5	This year marks the 100th anniversary of Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia
0:23.9	Wolf. And joining MJ to discuss this modernist masterpiece is Jumanicatib, regular guest here on
0:31.1	the podcast, and Laura Thompson, first-timer, but certainly, or hopefully not a last timer.
0:37.8	MJ, over to you.
0:39.8	Hello, and welcome to another book club episode of the Book Review podcast.
0:44.4	I'm MJ Franklin.
0:45.4	I'm an editor here at the New York Times Book Review,
0:47.6	and for this month's Book Review Book Club,
0:49.7	we're talking about Mrs. Dalloway by one Virginia Woolf.
0:53.6	We chose this book as our book club book because
0:55.5	a novel turned 100 this year, happy birthday, Mrs. Dalloway. And we thought, to celebrate the book
1:00.8	Centennial, let's read it and talk about it. And to talk about it, I'm joined in the studio by
1:06.6	two of my incredible colleagues. First up, a returning voice you know and love, a fellow editor here at the New York Times book review, Shumana Kutteep. Welcome back, Jumana.
1:16.7	Hey, I'm Jumina. I'm excited to be back. Thank you. Thank you for coming back. And I also have a quick shout out.
1:22.6	Shumana, you just wrote a wonderful profile of Jonas Hassan Khmeri, who has a new novel, The Sisters. Readers,
1:29.8	go check out that piece. Jumana, I love it whenever you write anything, and that one is so good.
1:34.5	Oh, thank you, MJ. Yeah, it was fun. I got to talk about curses for like two weeks nonstop.
1:39.5	It felt great. The dream. The dream. I think I'm liberated now, though. I think. Well, thank you for coming back to the podcast and readers go check that out. And also, joining us in the studio for the first time, Laura Thompson.
1:52.2	Laura is a fact checker here at the book review. Welcome, Laura. Hi, I'm so happy to be here.
1:57.6	Laura, by way of introduction, can you tell us what kind of reader are you?
	...

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