A Love Letter to London
Hope Fowler and Emily Cabreja
“… Overhead was what she loved; life; London; this moment of June.”
Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway, p 8.
A note on the assignment: Students read Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, in which several characters walk around London in June of 1925. Each group of students was asked to trace the journey of one character or couple. Hope and Emily followed in the steps of Clarissa Dalloway, the novel’s protagonist.
People often read books about faraway lands. Whether it is Hogwarts or Heaven, magical islands or mythical Olympus, these stories feel like they take place a million miles away. However, with Mrs. Dalloway, there is a different kind of magic in that you can walk the streets and read on the benches of places Virginia Woolf herself described. This week, Emily and I walked through St. James Park, crossed Victoria Street, and even stopped into Hatchard’s Bookstore, connecting ourselves with Woolf’s protagonist. Clarissa Dalloway is not relatable to me in a lot of ways. She is much older, wealthier, living in the 1920s and having grand parties with the Prime Minister. However, what we do have in common is our love for the streets of London, the noise, the energy, and the beauty. These pictures document Emily and my journey through historic London, walked through by fictional and nonfictional alike.
We worked backwards when following Clarissa Dalloway’s path, starting on Piccadilly, and making our way to Hatchard’s Bookstore. However, in following in Clarissa’s footsteps we found ourselves imaging London through her and Virgina Woolf’s eyes. The streets were busy and buzzing as everyone walked purposefully towards their end goal, manicured shops beckoned a passerby to peek inside for just a second. Then sat the lovely, dainty bookshop, quietly amongst the chaos of the town displaying the latest, most popular collection.
After leaving Piccadilly we made our way towards St. James Park, one of the royal parks in London which are a slice of nature amongst the metal and stone of the city. The grand black and gold gates greet visitors into the park, beautiful and regal like the rest of the stops which Clarissa made. As the journey continued, the line between fiction and reality began to blur, it became easy to picture Clarissa (and Woolf) on her walk from the busy streets of London to St. James Park for a moment to reflect without distraction. Finally, we made our way to Westminster, the starting point of Clarissa’s journey. Big Ben stands straight and proudly as it rings again and again, reaching every ear within its radius, and then standing there is Mrs. Dalloway waiting to cross Victoria Street to begin her day.
All in all, Mrs. Dalloway is a complex book. Its purpose is to not only reflect on the impact of war on the homefront, but also to give a voice to the city. Although it would have also been interesting to read Woolf’s book back at Providence College, I believe the only proper way to enjoy reading it is by being in London. Therefore, one cannot only experience and imagine the places mentioned in the text, but truly understand the city which Virginia Woolf loved so dearly.
