Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself. So begins Virginia Woolf’s much-beloved fourth novel. First published in 1925, Mrs. Dalloway has long been considered Woolf’s masterpiece. A pivotal work of literary modernism, its simple plot-centered on an upper-class Londoner preparing to give a party-is complicated by Woolf’s satire of the English social system.

For decades, Woolf’s rapturous style and vision of individual consciousness have challenged and inspired readers, novelists, and scholars alike. In this annotated volume based on the original British edition, acclaimed essayist and Oxford don Merve Emre mines Woolf’s diaries and notes on writing to take us into the making of Mrs. Dalloway, revealing the novel’s artistry and astonishing originality. Alongside her generous commentary, Emre offers hundreds of illustrations and little-known photographs from Woolf’s life. The result is not only an essential volume for students and Woolf devotees, but an incomparable gift to all lovers of literature.