"The New Dress" is a

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

by the English

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born i ...

. It was written in 1924 whilst Woolf was writing '' Mrs. Dalloway'' (which was published the following year). It is possible that it was originally to have been a chapter in the novel; the two share some characters and events. It was not published until 1927 when it appeared in the May edition of the

New York magazine ''New York'' is an American biweekly magazine concerned with life, culture, politics, and style generally, and with a particular emphasis on New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to ''The New Yorker' ...

, '' The Forum''.Exhibition on Smith College
/ref> It appeared again in '' A Haunted House and Other Short Stories'' published in 1944, and in ''Mrs. Dalloway's Party'' published in 1973.

Plot

The

stream-of-consciousness In literary criticism, stream of consciousness is a narrative mode or method that attempts "to depict the multitudinous thoughts and feelings which pass through the mind" of a narrator. The term was coined by Daniel Oliver in 1840 in ''First Li ...

narrative concerns Mabel Waring, deeply self-conscious and insecure as she attends a party hosted by Clarissa Dalloway. Mabel's new, though old-fashioned dress symbolising her insecurity; she has gone to great care to have it made but on arrival at the party she sees it in a mirror and immediately announces to herself "No. It was not ''right''".

References

External links

Full text of "The New Dress" at HathiTrust Digital Library
1927 short stories Short stories by Virginia Woolf Works originally published in The Forum (American magazine) {{1920s-story-stub