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The Hours | Introduction

Michael Cunningham's Pulitzer-Prize winning novel The Hours opens with the suicide of Virginia Woolf, who was one of the most important writers of the twentieth century. She becomes a character in his book, as he weaves his depiction of her creation of her celebrated novel Mrs. Dalloway (1925) into the stories of two other women who are profoundly affected by her work. Cunningham traces a day in the three women's lives in which each becomes moved by an urge to create something of lasting significance to themselves and to others. Woolf composes her novel and prepares for a visit by her sister; Clarissa Vaughan and Laura Brown plan parties for friends and/or family.

During this process, the women experience moments of perfect harmony, which help them endure the losses that they inevitably must face. In this poignant exploration of the ironic tension between life and death, creativity and stagnation, Cunningham ultimately presents a life-affirming vision in his novel's celebration of hope and the endurance of the human spirit.

The Hours Summary

Prologue

The prologue to The Hours focuses on Virginia Woolf in 1941, just as World War II has begun. "She walks purposely toward the river," feeling as if she has failed as a writer and noting the signs that her mental illness is returning. She gathers stones that she places in her pockets and wades out into the river. Suddenly, the current pulls her under. Back at their home, her husband Leonard finds the suicide letter she has written, telling him that she is certain she is losing her sanity and insisting that he has given her "the greatest possible happiness." Her body floats downstream and is caught on a piling. The specific time and place of this event is not identified in the novel, but the historical Virginia Woolf drowned herself in the River Ouse near her Sussex, England home on March 28, 1941.

Part I

The novel moves back and forth between three stories that focus on three different women: Virginia Woolf, Clarissa Vaughan, and Laura Brown. It begins in New York City at the end of the twentieth century with fifty-two-year-old Clarissa, who needs to buy flowers for the party she is giving for her best friend and former lover Richard in honor of his winning the prestigious Carrouthers Prize for poetry.

The narrator notes that Richard had given her the nickname Mrs. Dalloway when they were at college together, insisting that her own name was not appropriate for her. As she walks to get the flowers, she thinks about her relationship with Richard, which began when she was eighteen. Clarissa buys the flowers and heads for Richard's apartment.

In Richmond, England in 1923, Virginia Woolf begins the novel, which will become Mrs. Dalloway, with her heroine determined to get flowers for her party that afternoon, just as Clarissa Vaughan does. Leonard, who has nursed her through her illnesses, "does not demand what she can't provide" and so is always gentle with her. He believes that she will be recognized as a great author and so does all he can to encourage her writing. She hopes that she will be able to persuade him to move back to London, but Leonard worries that the city will exhaust her. She feels this morning in a perfect creative state.

In her home in Los Angeles in 1949, Laura reads the beginning of Mrs. Dalloway, "trying to lose herself." She feels guilty for reading on her husband Dan's birthday, thinking that she should be downstairs fixing his breakfast. She senses that it will be difficult to believe in herself this day but determines that she will bake Dan a cake. She tells herself "she does not dislike her child, does not dislike her husband. She will rise and be cheerful."

Laura goes downstairs where Dan and her son Richie are happy to see her. After her husband leaves, she is alone with Richie, who, she feels, demands too much of her. She fights the urge to go back upstairs and read and tells Richie that he can help her bake the cake.

Clarissa passes a corner where she remembers that she and Richard had argued, about what she cannot remember. Soon after, they had stopped being lovers. She arrives at Richard's apartment and finds that he is having a bad morning. Richard is dying of AIDS, which has ravaged his mind as well as his body. He is not sure he has the will or the strength to accept his award, which he insists, he is getting because he has AIDS and not because of his literary talents. His last book, which includes a character based on Clarissa, was not well received. Clarissa tries to assure him that the award is well deserved and insists that she will help him get through the evening.

Virginia has had a successful morning writing, but she worries that her novel will not be good... ยป Complete The Hours Summary