First edition. Small crown 8vo. 256 pp. Publisher's blue cloth, lettered in gilt to spine. Cream-white dustjacket, printed in black, designed by Vanessa Bell. Published 17 July 1941 at 7s. 6d. 1/6,358 copies printed. There was a second impression of 4,600 copies in July 1941 and a third of 2,000 in November 1941.
Top edge dusty, light foxing to fore-edge, minute tear to dustwrapper's spine crown hinge, else Fine.
A play within a play set in an English country house prior to the outbreak of World War II. It is the height of summer and preparations for the village's annual pageant are in full swing. Woolf's last novel published posthumously, and in her own opinion, "more quintessential" than any of her others, which she "enjoyed writing almost every page". Manuscript completed, but not finally revised for the printer, at the time of her death. "She would not, I believe, have made any large or material alterations in it, though she would probably have made a good many small corrections or revisions before passing the final proofs." [From the short introductory note by Leonard Woolf.]
[Kirkpatrick A26a; Woolmer 488]