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| Author | Michael Cunningham |
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| Language | English |
| Publisher | Farrar, Straus and Giroux |
Publication date | November 11, 1998 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 230 (1st edition hardcover) |
| ISBN | 0-374-17289-7 |
| OCLC | 39339842 |
The Hours, a 1998 novel by Michael Cunningham, is a tribute to Virginia Woolf's 1923 work Mrs. Dalloway; Cunningham emulates elements of Woolf's writing style while revisiting some of her themes within different settings. The Hours won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the 1999 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, and was later made into an Oscar-winning 2002 film of the same name.
The nonlinear narrative unfolds primarily through the perspectives of three women across three different decades, with each woman somehow impacted by the classic novel Mrs. Dalloway.
In 1923 Richmond, outside London, author Virginia Woolf writes Mrs. Dalloway and struggles with her mental illness. In 1949 Los Angeles, Laura Brown is reading Mrs. Dalloway while planning a birthday party for her husband, a World War II veteran. In 1999 New York City, Clarissa Vaughan plans a party to celebrate a major literary award received by her good friend and former lover, the poet Richard, who is dying of an AIDS-related illness.
The situations of all three characters mirror situations experienced by Woolf's own Clarissa Dalloway in Mrs. Dalloway, with Clarissa Vaughan being a modern-day version of Woolf's character. Like Mrs. Dalloway, Clarissa Vaughan goes on a journey to buy flowers while reflecting on the minutiae of the day around her and later prepares to throw a party. Clarissa Dalloway and Clarissa Vaughan also both contrast their histories and past loves with their current lives, which they both perceive as trivial. Several other characters in Clarissa Vaughan's story also parallel characters in Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway.
Cunningham's novel mirrors Mrs. Dalloway's stream-of-consciousness narrative style, which was pioneered by Woolf and James Joyce, in which the protagonists' flowing thoughts and perceptions are depicted as they would occur in real life. This means that characters interact not only with the present, but also with memories; this contextualizes personal history and backstory, which otherwise might appear quite trivial—buying flowers, baking a cake, and such things.
Similarly to Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, Cunningham's novel places the entire story within one day: Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway is one day in the life of the central character Clarissa Dalloway, while Cunningham's novel contains one day in the life of each of the three central characters (Clarissa Vaughan, Laura Brown, and Virginia Woolf herself). Through these three women, Cunningham attempts, as did Woolf, to show the beauty and profundity of every day in a person's life and, conversely, how a person's whole life can be examined through the lens of one single day.
Cunningham took the novel's title, The Hours, from the original working title that Virginia Woolf used for Mrs. Dalloway.
In 1941, Virginia Woolf commits suicide by drowning herself in the Ouse, a river in Sussex, England. Even as she is drowning, Virginia marvels at everyday sights and sounds. Leonard Woolf, her husband, finds her suicide note, and Virginia's dead body floats downstream where life continues as normal. The narrative shows Virginia's suicide note, which is taken directly from the historical Woolf's suicide note: "I don't think two people could have been happier than we have been."[1]
The novel jumps to New York City at the end of the 20th century where Clarissa Vaughan announces she will buy the flowers for a party she's hosting later in the day, paraphrasing the opening sentence of Woolf's novel. She leaves her partner Sally to walk to the flower shop, enjoying the everyday hustle and bustle of the city. The sights and sounds she encounters serve as jumping-off points for her thoughts about life, what she loves, and her past. The beautiful day reminds her of a happy memory, a holiday she had as a young woman with two friends, Richard and Louis. The flowers are for a party Clarissa is hosting at her apartment that night for Richard (now a renowned poet dying of an AIDS-related illness) as he has just won the Carrouthers Prize, an esteemed poetry prize. Clarissa bumps into Walter, an acquaintance who writes gay pulp fiction romances. Clarissa invites him to the party although she knows this will upset Richard. Clarissa continues on her way. She finally arrives at the flower shop.
The novel jumps to 1923 with Virginia Woolf waking one morning with the possible first line of a new novel. She carefully navigates her way through the morning, so as not to lose her inspiration. When she picks up her pen, she writes: "Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself."
The novel jumps to 1949 Los Angeles with Laura Brown reading the first line of Virginia Woolf's novel Mrs. Dalloway ("Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself.") Laura Brown is pregnant with her second child and is reading in bed. She does not want to get up although it is her husband Dan's birthday. She finds it hard to play the role of wife to Dan and mother to her son Richie, despite her appreciation for them. She eventually forces herself to go downstairs where she decides to make a cake for Dan's birthday which Richie will help her make.
The novel returns to Clarissa Vaughan who, having left the flower shop with an armload of flowers, decides to stop by Richard's apartment. On her way to Richard's she pauses at the site of a film shoot, hoping to catch a glimpse of a movie star. Eventually, she leaves, having not seen the star, embarrassed at her trivial impulses. Clarissa enters the neighborhood she and Richard frequented as young adults. It is revealed Richard and Clarissa once had a failed romantic relationship together, despite it being obvious Richard's "deepest longings" were for Louis, with whom he was already in a relationship. Clarissa enters Richard's apartment building, which she finds squalid. She seems to associate Richard's apartment building with a sense of decay and death.
Richard welcomes Clarissa, calling her "Mrs. D" a reference to Mrs. Dalloway. As Richard's closest friend, Clarissa has taken on the role of a caregiver through Richard's illness. Richard is struggling with what appears to Clarissa to be mental illness, brought about by his AIDS, and with Clarissa he discusses hearing voices. As Clarissa fusses about, Richard seems resigned. Finally, Clarissa leaves, promising to return in the afternoon to help him prepare for the party.
Two hours have passed since Virginia began writing the start of Mrs. Dalloway. Reflecting on the uncertainty of the artistic process, she decides she has written enough for the day and is worried that if she continues her fragile mental state will become unbalanced. Virginia goes to the printing room where Leonard and an assistant are at work. She senses from the assistant Ralph's demeanor that the "impossibly demanding" Leonard has just scolded him for inefficiency. Virginia announces she is going for a walk and will then help with the work.
Laura Brown also goes about an act of creation: making Dan's birthday cake. Richie is helping her, and Laura passes through emotions of intense love for, and annoyance with, Richie.
Virginia Woolf is taking her walk while thinking of ideas for her novel. She already believes Clarissa Dalloway will commit suicide, but now Virginia plans for Mrs. Dalloway to have had one true love: not her husband, but a girl Clarissa knew during her girlhood. Virginia plans for Clarissa to kill herself in middle age over something quite trivial. Virginia longs to return home; she is aware she is more susceptible to mental illness in London, but would rather die 'raving mad' in the city than avoid life in Richmond.
As Virginia returns home she feels as if she is impersonating herself. She acts this way to convince herself and others that she is sane, so that Leonard will agree with the idea of moving back to London.
Having walked back home from Richard's, Clarissa Vaughan enters her apartment. Her partner Sally, a TV producer, is on her way out the door to a lunch meeting with a film star.
As Clarissa prepares for the party, she thinks of the famous actor Sally is lunching with, a B-movie action star who recently came out as gay. She thinks of the holiday she had when she was eighteen with Louis and Richard, a time when "it seemed anything could happen, anything at all" (p. 95). She wonders what might have happened if she had tried to remain with Richard.
Laura's cake is complete, but she is not happy with it. Laura catalogs what she will do to keep busy for the rest of the day: prepare for Dan's party. She knows Dan will be happy with whatever she prepares.
Kitty, Laura's neighbor, arrives at the door. She notices Laura's amateur efforts at making a cake. Laura remembers that Kitty has remained barren despite her desire to have children.
As the two women sip coffee Kitty admits she has to go to the hospital for a few days and wants Laura to feed her dog. She tells Laura, somewhat evasively, that the problem is in her uterus, probably the cause of her infertility. Laura moves to comfort Kitty with an embrace. She feels a sense of what it would be like to be a man, and also a sort of jealousy towards Ray, Kitty's husband. Both women capitulate to the moment, to hold each other. Laura is kissing Kitty's forehead when Kitty lifts her face and the two women kiss each other on the lips.
It is Kitty who pulls away and Laura is assailed by a panic. She realizes her son, Richie, has been watching everything. However, Kitty is already on her way out the door, her momentary lapse of character wiped from memory. Nothing is mentioned of the kiss, and she brushes off Laura's continued overtures of help politely and leaves. Attempting to return to the world she knows, Laura attends to her son and, without hesitation, dumps her freshly made cake in the bin. She will make another cake.
As Virginia helps Leonard and Ralph with the printing press, a servant announces Virginia's sister has arrived. Vanessa, Virginia's sister, is one-and-a-half hours early. Leonard refuses to stop working, so Virginia attends to Vanessa alone. Virginia and Vanessa go out into the garden where Vanessa's children have found a dying bird. Virginia believes, as she watches Vanessa's children, that the real accomplishment in life is not her "experiments in the narrative" but the producing of children, which Vanessa achieved.
The bird the children found has died, and the children, assisted by the adults, hold a funeral for it. As Virginia stares longingly at the dead bird she has an epiphany: her character, Clarissa Dalloway, is not like Virginia, and would not commit suicide.
As Clarissa prepares for Richard's party, she is visited by Richard's old partner Louis. Clarissa is thrown off-kilter by the visit.
1923
1949
1999
The Hours concerns three generations of questionably lesbian or bisexual women. Virginia Woolf was known to have affairs with women; Laura Brown kisses Kitty in her kitchen; and Clarissa Vaughan, who was previously Richard's lover, is in a relationship with Sally. Peripheral characters also exhibit a variety of sexual orientations.
Apart from the novel's three female protagonists, and the three symbiotic storylines that they appear in, there are other examples in the novel where Cunningham patterns his story on groups of three. Most conspicuous of all is the threeway relationship that once existed between Clarissa, Richard and Louis when they were three students on holiday together. In the 'Mrs Woolf' storyline there is another grouping of three (biographically factual) in Vanessa's three children, Quentin, Julian, and Angelica, who come with their mother to visit Virginia. Then there is the nuclear family of three we find in Laura Brown, her husband Dan, and their son Richie.
Michael Cunningham has admitted to his preoccupation with the number three in a televised interview with Charlie Rose.[2]
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