The Hours (novel) - Trivia

Trivia

• On her way to Richard's apartment, Clarissa Vaughan thinks she sees Meryl Streep. Meryl Streep ended up playing Clarissa Vaughan in Stephen Daldry's movie adaptation of "The Hours". In the book, Clarissa Vaughan considers it might also have been Vanessa Redgrave that she saw. Curiously, Redgrave plays the part of Clarissa Dalloway in the 1997 film version of Mrs Dalloway.
• As Streep comments in The Hours' DVD commentary, it was Redgrave's late daughter, Natasha Richardson, who first sent her a copy of the novel. Richardson apparently felt that Streep might enjoy reading about her fictional self in the novel.
• Mrs. Brown is a character in Virginia Woolf's essay, "Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown".
• Two anachronisms are presented by Cunningham in his book. The first is on page 30 (1998 edition) where he writes of Virginia Woolf, "She rises from her bed and goes into the bathroom." Hogarth House was built in 1720 and in 1923, it did not have a bathroom, only an outhouse. The second is on p. 43 where Mrs. Brown in 1949 sees "beside the roses stand cereal box and milk carton..." Although Lucerne Dairy did have milk cartons in 1938, they did not come into common use until the 1960s. These are both corrected in the film; Woolf is depicted using a ewer and basin to wash in the morning, and the Browns have milk in a bottle.
• Cunningham writes that Ralph Partridge husband of Dora Carrington is working at the Hogarth Press in 1923, however, it was "just before Christmas, split with the Hogarth Press". He did train Marjorie Joad in January and February 1923 as his replacement, but Cunningham writes as if he is working there still permanently. Cunningham writes on p. 72 (1998 edition), "already Marjorie has been hired...to do the jobs Ralph considers beneath him." However, Ralph had already quit.