Annotating Mrs. Dalloway: Merve Emre with James Wood

Two fellow scholars and critics revisit Woolf's modernist masterpiece.

In 1925 Virginia Woolf published her fourth novel, Mrs. Dalloway. It was a groundbreaking and essential work of modernist literature. Shortly before its release, Woolf wrote in a diary, "I might become one of the interesting—I will not say great—but interesting novelists." In the new Annotated Mrs. Dalloway, scholar and critic Merve Emre traces the genesis of the story and its indelible characters. She speaks about the book with New Yorker critic James Wood.

The New York Public Library holds what is arguably the most complete and important collection of Virginia Woolf material in the world. It includes a manuscript draft of "The Prime Minister," a short story that formed part of Mrs. Dalloway's foundation. Visit the Library's new Polonsky Exhibition of The New York Public Library's Treasures to see it in person along with some of the most extraordinary items from the 56 million in our collections.

The event is presented as part of the Treasures exhibition. It will begin with a short curator talk on the Woolf collections and "The Prime Minister" by Carolyn Vega, the Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Curator of English and American Literature. 

This program will be streamed live on the NYPL event page.

ACCESSIBILITY NOTES
A live transcript will be provided. ASL interpretation is available upon request. Please submit your request at least two weeks in advance by emailing accessibility@nypl.org. A pre-filled Gmail template is available by clicking here. Any media will be accompanied by alt text to reference before the program or by audio description.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Merve Emre is an associate professor of English at the University of Oxford, the author of several books, including The Personality Brokers, and a contributing writer at The New Yorker. 

James Wood teaches English at Harvard University and is a staff writer at The New Yorker. He is the author of several books of essays, most recently Serious Noticing: Selected Essays 1997-2019, and two novels, most recently Upstate (2018).

GET THE BOOK

• NYPL Catalog


• SimplyE, available on iOS and Android


• The Library Shop — proceeds benefit the New York Public Library

Don't have a New York Public Library card? Get one here!

CONNECT   

Sign up for our e-newsletters to stay up to date on upcoming events and Library offerings.

Please submit all press inquiries to Sara Beth Joren at least 48 hours before the event: email sarabethjoren@nypl.org or use this Gmail template.

For all other questions and inquiries, please email publicprograms@nypl.org or use this Gmail template.

LIVE from NYPL is made possible by the support of Library patrons and friends, as well as by the continuing generosity of Celeste Bartos, Mahnaz Ispahani Bartos and Adam Bartos, and the Margaret and Herman Sokol Public Education Endowment Fund.

PUBLIC NOTICE AND DISCLAIMER
This Program uses a third-party website link. By clicking on the third-party website link, you will leave NYPL’s website and enter a website not operated by NYPL. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of every third-party website or service that you visit or use, including those third parties with whom you interact with through our Library services. For more information about these third-party links, please see the section of NYPL's Privacy Policy describing "Third-Party Library Services Providers" at https://www.nypl.org/help/about-nypl/legal-notices/privacy-policy.

During this Program, you will be using third-party platforms such as Zoom and YouTube, for the purpose of communication. This service may collect some personally identifying information about you, such as name, username, email address, & password. This service will treat the information it collects about you pursuant to its own privacy policy, which can be found here: Google Privacy Policy, Zoom Privacy Policy, YouTube Privacy Policy.

Merve Emre © Christian Nakarado