“ First a warning, musical; then the hour, irrevocable. The leaden circles dissolved in the air. ”
Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway (1925). copy citation
| Author | Virginia Woolf |
|---|---|
| Source | Mrs Dalloway |
| Topic | life time |
| Date | 1925 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | |
| Weblink | http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200991.txt |
Context
“over twenty,—one feels even in the midst of the traffic, or waking at night, Clarissa was positive, a particular hush, or solemnity; an indescribable pause; a suspense (but that might be her heart, affected, they said, by influenza*) before Big Ben* strikes. There! Out it boomed. First a warning, musical; then the hour, irrevocable. The leaden circles dissolved in the air. Such fools we are, she thought, crossing Victoria Street.* For Heaven only knows why one loves it so, how one sees it so, making it up, building it round one, tumbling it, creating it every moment afresh; but the veriest frumps, the most dejected of miseries sitting on doorsteps (drink their downfall) do the same; can't be dealt with, she felt positive, by Acts of Parliament for that very reason: they love life.”
source
Meaning and analysis
