Mrs. Dalloway by Woolf, Virginia - 1925

London: Published by Leonard and Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, 1925 First edition, first printing. One of 2000 copies. Publisher's deep rust cloth, gilt lettering to spine; lacking dust jacket. Near fine book with very faint fading to spine, a few light spots to front board, and some offsetting to free endpapers. Overall, a very attractive and fresh copy. Kirkpatrick A9a. Woolmer 82. One of the author's best-known novels, Mrs. Dalloway tells the story of Clarissa Dalloway as she prepares to host a high-society party. The text is a compilation of two of Woolf's short stories "Mrs. Dalloway in Bond Street" and "The Prime Minister." A stream of consciousness narrative, Mrs. Dalloway follows the protagonist from her decision to "buy the flowers herself" at the start of the day through the completion of her party in the evening. Throughout the novel, Woolf explores the impact of mental illness on daily life, both in Mrs. Dalloway, who reveals that she is being treated for depression, and a second leading character, Septimus Warren Smith, a WWI veteran suffering from PTSD who chooses to commit suicide rather than face involuntary commitment to a psychiatric hospital. Like many of Woolf's novels, the text is centered on philosophy and perception rather than action sequences and dialogue; John W. Crawford agrees in his New York Times Review that "One day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway… is the complete story of Mrs. Woolf's new novel, yet she contrives to enmesh all the inflections of Mrs. Dalloway's personality, and many of the implications of modern civilization, in the account of those twenty-four hours.". First Edition. Hard Cover. Near Fine.