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The Hours

By Michael Cunningham

(290)

| Paperback | 9780312247188

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Book Description

A daring, deeply affecting third novel by the author of A Home at the End of the World and Flesh and Blood. In The Hours, Michael Cunningham, widely praised as one of the most gifted writers of his generation, draws inventively on the life and work of Virginia Woolf to tell the story of a group of cContinue

Critics

Ghost of Mrs D

The Hours by Michael Cunningham 230pp, Fourth Estate, £12.99 Michael Cunningham's new novel may have been inspired by Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway - working title: The Hours - but it quickly slips free of these original moorings to become a far more ... (read full critics)

guardian.co.uk published on Sun, 26 Sep 2010

Thinking aloud

Mrs Dalloway, the novel to which The Hours is a homage, is often cited as a prime example of a "stream of consciousness" narrative. Such a narrative is supposed to follow not just the unvoiced thoughts of a character (Jane Austen's Emma does that), b ... (read full critics)

guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

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9 Reviews

4 people find this helpful

What a good book should bring to the reader are these:pure entertainment and thoroughly fluent narration of events, and of course, deep stirring of feelings.
The hours has all of them.
I can't name any other book that has so caught my attention as The Hours did. And I am unable to name any ... (continue)

What a good book should bring to the reader are these:pure entertainment and thoroughly fluent narration of events, and of course, deep stirring of feelings.
The hours has all of them.
I can't name any other book that has so caught my attention as The Hours did. And I am unable to name any other book as well, which has more touching paragraphs as this. For days I would read loud passages after passages, fully savouring the words. Really I would think the composition alone makes the work quite perfect in literary standard. Chapters are simply words stringed together like jewels.
My favorite parts included the beginning where the letter, simple but with so much deep, disturbing forces not unlike the dark torrents about to carry Ms.Woolf away. The parts about Clarissa are also favorite reads.
For reasons I have yet to uncover, some chapters concerning Richard and his mother can sometimes be unbearably painful to read. Not that the book is ill-written. The feeling of deep disturbance I guess, is the reason. Somehow it makes me uncomfortable.
A great book. A great read, literally.

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razor's edge said on Mar 4, 2007 | Add your feedback

2 people find this helpful

Good companion to the movie

This is the same story, told in mostly the same way. It's excellent. I recommend seing the movie, reading this book, reading Mrs. Dalloway and even watching the movie version of Mrs. Dalloway, if possible.

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Hans said on Nov 13, 2007 | Add your feedback

2 people find this helpful

A lovely book. Like "Mrs Dalloway" it took me some time to get into the story, but once I did, I thought it was really remarkable.
"The Hours" plays off "Mrs Dalloway" beautifully. And doesn't resort (entirely) to the same bash-you-over-the-head with an anvil of OMGSYMBOLISM like the movie ve ... (continue)

A lovely book. Like "Mrs Dalloway" it took me some time to get into the story, but once I did, I thought it was really remarkable.
"The Hours" plays off "Mrs Dalloway" beautifully. And doesn't resort (entirely) to the same bash-you-over-the-head with an anvil of OMGSYMBOLISM like the movie version did.

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Hold Your Spin said on Nov 28, 2006 | Add your feedback

sofisticato e metaletterario, commovente tributo alla prosa di Virginia Woolf

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Andretwp said on Jan 31, 2012 | Add your feedback

1 person find this helpful

Wow

Delicate, intense, senstive, intelligent, and with the power to make me want to reread Mrs. Dalloway.

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fran_ces said on Nov 22, 2010 | Add your feedback

The Hours

I was swept away in the parallels of the lives of the three women in the story (four if you count Mrs. Dalloway). I even went out to get Mrs. Dalloway to read because since I had not yet read that book I'm sure I missed many of the literary references therein. The ending was just the icing on the ... (continue)

I was swept away in the parallels of the lives of the three women in the story (four if you count Mrs. Dalloway). I even went out to get Mrs. Dalloway to read because since I had not yet read that book I'm sure I missed many of the literary references therein. The ending was just the icing on the cake.

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Readingrat said on Apr 17, 2010 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback