The Hours Summary
Michael Cunningham

The Hours Overview

The Hours by Michael Cunningham is a novel about how Virginia Woolf affected Laura Brown and Clarissa Vaughan and how their lives are intertwined. Laura Brown is an unhappy housewife who often has thoughts of suicide and is the reader of Woolf’s book, “Mrs. Dalloway.” Clarissa, nicknamed Mrs. Dalloway by her lover Richard, is attempting to throw a party in Richard’s honor for winning the Carrouthers Prize. Dying from AIDS, Richard does not attend the party, but commits suicide by leaping from a fifth story window.