Virginia Woolf

"In Mrs. Dalloway we follow the main figure, a middle-aged society lady whose husband is a member of parliament, during the course of one day. She shops in London preparing for a reception she is giving for distinguished guests, and acts as hostess during the party. Loneliness and isolation are the central theme, which is deftly elaborated. A chance meeting with a friend she loved in her youth brings her to reflect on her present arid life; interwoven is the story of a man who has gone mad because of his war experiences and now taken his life because of the inability of those around him to help him come to terms with his trauma." 

"To the Lighthouse further develops the technique of the inner monologue in a novel about two incidents ten years apart in the life of a family: a trip to a lighthouse on an island and the completing of a painting. In this novel the peace-making abilities of the mother of the family prevail many years after her death: reflection, change and reconciliation are achieved. Virginia Woolf did not in her own life succeed in overcoming the depressions which tormented her at regular intervals: she drowned herself in 1941."

A Survey of English Literature in its Historical Context Ruth Fleischmann (Zetrum für Fernstudien und universitäre Weiterbildunguniversität Koblenz-Landau 1999, New edition by the author 2013)