This Shakespeare Head Press edition restores the text to its original form, notably recreating the space breaks on the page with which Woolf deliberately fragmented her narrative. The editor provides an extensive introduction, discussing the genesis of the novel, its biographical elements, the process of composition and revision, and the history of its early critical reception. A series of notes helps the reader to identify references and allusions, from sponge-bag trousers and gold beater’s skin to Tonks and Steer, and the Hampstead Garden Suburbs; while an appendix lists variants between the first UK and first US editions of the work.

Edward L. Bishop is Professor of English at the University of Alberta, Canada. He has previously edited Jacob’s Room: The Holograph Draft (1998) and compiled The Bloomsbury Group, Dictionary of Literary Biography Documents Series (1992) and A Virginia Woolf Chronology (1989).