BookFest Winter Seminar deep dives into ‘Mrs. Dalloway’

It’s time to start reading — library book discussions begin in January

When Bristol BookFest (BBF) picked Virginia Woolf’s novel Mrs. Dalloway for its sixth annual event, it was also already planning how to conduct the book discussion sessions at the Rogers Free Library in Bristol. Ninety minute sessions will be held in the Herreshoff Room on six consecutive Tuesdays, beginning January 20, from 6 to 7:30 pm.

The seminars will be led by BBF co-chair Steve Calvert of Bristol. Calvert led similar sessions on Fahrenheit 451, resulting in record attendance. He urges interested residents to start reading now, although the first session will be mostly on what is one of the more famous first lines in literature. Each session will include historical and contextual background, analytical insights, a deep dig into the text, and Q & A. Register on the BBF website (Bristolbookfest.com) or at the library.

Many editions of Mrs. Dalloway have been published. The BBF committee and the library recommend two: the Mariner Edition, also known as "The Virginia Woolf Library Authorized Edition” (197 pages) or the Norton Critical Edition of the novel that includes 200 additional pages of commentary (not "required reading”). The BBF committee has donated multiple copies of each edition to the library. Either edition can be bought at Ink Fish Books in Warren (10% off if BookFest is mentioned).