In Edward Mendelson, Virginia Woolf has found a profoundly generous and intelligent reader, one who considers Mrs. Dalloway in its full complexity. Elegant and eloquentthis book is excellent company. -- Anne Fernald, editor of The Oxford Handbook of Virginia Woolf In Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf set out to "dig out beautiful caves behind [ her] characters." Edward Mendelson's triumph of scholarship shines a light into the beautiful caves behind Woolf herself and the fascinating, complex characters, major and minor, who populate her novel: to read this masterpiece through his eyes is to appreciate anew its myriad connections, its moral vision, its humanity, and its enduring pleasure. Mrs. Dalloway offers a transformative reading experience, and Mendelson is the ideal companion to guide us, with deft erudition, through Clarissa's day. -- Francesca Wade, author of Square Haunting: Five Writers in London Between the Wars Thanks to Edward Mendelson, Ive lived Mrs. Dalloway all over again, and seen and felt the novel anew. Rare for literary criticism to act like a revelation, but The Inner Life of Mrs. Dalloway does just that, showing how Virginia Woolf creates dramas of intimacy and epiphany in the larger contexts of empire, and medical and emotional coercion. A work of admirable acuity and ethical force. -- Rosanna Warren, author of So Forth: Poems and Max Jacob: A Life in Art and Letters
