Books in Shakespeare Head Press Edition of Virginia Woolf series

This extensively annotated edition of Virgina Woolf’s last novel is based on the text of the first English edition, emended on the basis of a comparison of it with her final typescript. Represents an authoritative new edition of one of Virgina Woolf’s most challenging and subtle books, and the first of her books to be published posthumously. Features the text of the first English edition of Between the Acts, emended on the basis of a comparison of it with Woolf’s final typescript . Contains an introduction and extensive notes, which demonstrate that in writing the book, Woolf drew upon a capacious memory filled by a lifetime of reading, writing, listening and observing. Forms part of the prestigious Shakespeare Head Press series of Woolf's works.

First published in 1922, Jacob’s Room was Virginia Woolf’s third novel and the first in her more experimental mode. Set in the years leading up to the First World War, the work is an elegy, not just for an individual character, but for a generation lost in and affected by the war. 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.