[Vwoolf] Mrs. Dalloway and the Pandemic

[Diane Reynolds]

Thanks Kristin, for sharing this. I loved this article, and up until I read it, had missed the influenza references in Mrs. Dalloway. I loved too Evan Kindley’s evident love of reading, the sheer joy taken in Mrs. Dalloway. Recently, in the last week or so, I read in the NYT that the English and French governments tried to keep any word of the influenza as quiet as possible, so as not to give the Germans the information that their enemies were suffering. (Though I can’t but imagine the Germans knew—and Germans suffered too, which is what creates debates today about starvation figures in Germany due to the British blockade: was it starvation or influenza finally killing people?)

 I wondered as I read this New Yorker piece if the habit of mind of silence brought on by wartime censorship  is why so little continued to be said about the influenza after the war? In any case, it's fascinating how our own changed situations suddenly cause details of a text to “pop.” 

Also, I didn’t realize that the influenza brought on Julia Stephen’s heart condition, which made me wonder how long the after-effects of coronavirus will linger—presumably today’s better medical science will help. 

> On Apr 10, 2020, at 1:35 PM, Kristin Czarnecki via Vwoolf <vwoolf at lists.osu.edu> wrote:
> 
> https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/why-anxious-readers-under-quarantine-turn-to-virginia-woolfs-mrs-dalloway <https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/why-anxious-readers-under-quarantine-turn-to-virginia-woolfs-mrs-dalloway>
>  <https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/why-anxious-readers-under-quarantine-turn-to-virginia-woolfs-mrs-dalloway>	
> Why Anxious Readers Under Quarantine Turn to Virginia Woolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway” | The New Yorker <https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/why-anxious-readers-under-quarantine-turn-to-virginia-woolfs-mrs-dalloway>
> Literature does its best to maintain that its concern is with the mind; that the body is a sheet of plain glass through which the soul looks straight and clear, and, save for one or two passions ...
> www.newyorker.com <http://www.newyorker.com/>
> 
> Kristin Czarnecki
> President, International Virginia Woolf Society
> Professor of English
> Georgetown College, Pawling Hall 110
> Georgetown, KY 40324
> 502-863-8132
> 
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