Clarissa Dalloway spends the day preparing for the party she is hosting that evening. Virginia Woolf, in lyrical language, describes Clarissa, her memories, day-dreams, regrets and fears for what will be, to masterfully bring together the past, present and future in what has become one of the great novels of the twentieth century. "Mrs. Dalloway was the first novel to split the atom. … It is one of the most moving, revolutionary artworks of the twentieth century. " (Michael Cunningham, author of The Hours. )