"Mrs. Dalloway" by Virginia Woolf

The podcast becomes therapy as Robin reckons with one of the biggest lies about books he has ever told—and the guilt that has blocked him ever since from finishing Virginia Woolf’s stream-of-consciousness classic. NOTE: SPOILERS THROUGHOUT Robin and Alex explore the perilously high stakes of buying flowers, hosting dinner parties and pretending to have read books to impress people. Along the way, they celebrate Woolf’s astonishing sentences, question whether anything actually happens in Mrs Dalloway, quarrel with the Guardian’s 100 greatest novels, and diagnose Alex’s deeper problem: he may not like fiction. Finally, Robin makes a legally non-binding commitment to finish the book by 2030. 00:00 — Equal-opportunity non-readers 01:13 — What actually happens in Mrs Dalloway? 03:42 — Virginia Woolf: genius, snob and literary juggler 08:11 — Clarissa’s loves, choices and dinner party 15:53 — The epic stakes of buying the flowers yourself 20:47 — The lie that stopped Robin finishing the book 26:28 — Why people pretend to have read great books 29:36 — The problem with leaving the stream of consciousness 30:42 — Quarrelling with the 100 greatest novels 38:22 — Does Alex actually like fiction? 39:38 — Will either of them finish Mrs Dalloway? 44:02 — Where to read Woolf performatively 46:00 — New arrivals for the unread pile 49:00 — Next time: the terrifyingly enormous The Eighth Life Chapters