"The Prime Minister" typescript draft
Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)
“The Prime Minister” typescript draft
ca. October 1922
The “violent explosion” described in the first lines of this seventeen-page short story would be largely retained at the opening of the second chapter of Mrs. Dalloway, although the tone and content would change significantly as Woolf redrafted the text. In the book, this chapter introduces the character of Septimus Smith, the apprehensive veteran who commits suicide at the end of the novel. However, in this draft story, the character (initially Stephen Smith) appears only briefly as someone “different” who is “goat-toothed and laughed very violently.”
In February 1915, Woolf witnessed a similar explosion to the one described here. She later understood it to be the bursting of a motorcar tire, which likely inspired this scene.
: Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature
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