The Hours is a bookish book, the kind of book English majors will go nuts over. And by that, we mean that this is a book about the beauty and value of books. Michael Cunningham has explained that before writing The Hours, he had "thought for some time" about writing a book that would not only acknowledge the role that Mrs. Dalloway played in inspiring him to become a writer, but would also be "a book about reading a book" (source).
The Hours itself is that book, of course, and on top of being a contemporary re-creation of Mrs. Dalloway and a testament to the joy of reading, it's also a novel-length love letter to literature and the act of writing.
Questions About Literature and Writing
- Apart from Virginia Woolf and Mrs. Dalloway, what other authors and books are mentioned within The Hours?
- What were Richard Brown's deepest, most heartfelt ambitions as a poet and novelist? What did he want to accomplish?
- How closely does Clarissa Vaughan's narrative in The Hours parallel the plot of Mrs. Dalloway?
Chew on This
In The Hours, Virginia Woolf and Richard Brown share many of the same ambitions for and anxieties about their writing, and both of them end their lives believing that they have failed to achieve anything worthwhile. Together, these two characters highlight the toll that the writer's calling can take on those who devote themselves to it.
A book that is, in part, "a book about reading a book" simply wouldn't be complete without the person who actually does the reading. Laura Brown is that person in The Hours. As a bookish young woman who eventually becomes a librarian, she's a shout-out to avid readers everywhere.