Pulitzer Prize Fiction Winner
The Hours
by Michael Cunningham
Summary
The novel braids together a single day in the lives of three women across the twentieth century: Virginia Woolf as she begins writing "Mrs. Dalloway," a 1940s Los Angeles housewife reading the book, and a contemporary New Yorker hosting a party for an ailing friend. Through structural mirroring and lyrical interior monologue, Cunningham examines how art, memory, and depression ripple across generations. The book stands as a defining work of modern literary intertextuality.
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Historical Context & Significance
A masterpiece of intertextuality; it was later adapted into an Oscar-winning film starring Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, and Julianne Moore.