The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf, 1915, 1st Edition, Signed Chelsea Binding

Binding Details:  Fine contemporary signed full morocco leather binding by The Chelsea Bindery, London that features raised bands to the spine with gold gilt titling and publication date, doublures with gold ruling, marbled endpapers, handsewn headbands, and all page ends gold gilted. The Chelsea Bindery stamp appears on the bottom of the front inside cover.

Book Details:  This is the first edition, first printing of Virginia Woolf’s first novel “The Voyage Out” published Duckworth & Co. in 1915. Woolf began work on The Voyage Out in 1910 but the novel had a long and difficult gestation and was not published until 1915. It was written during a period in which Woolf was especially psychologically vulnerable. She suffered from periods of depression and at one point attempted suicide. The resultant work contained the seeds of all that would blossom in her later work: the innovative narrative style, the focus on feminine consciousness, sexuality and death. Writing in 1926, E. M. Forster described it as "... a strange, tragic, inspired book whose scene is a South America not found on any map and reached by a boat which would not float on any sea, an America whose spiritual boundaries touch Xanadu and Atlantis". Reviewing the book a decade earlier, he wrote this: "It is absolutely unafraid... Here at last is a book which attains unity as surely as Wuthering Heights, though by a different path."

The book measures 7.25” x 5” with 318 pages and 16 pages of publisher’s advertisements.

Condition Report:  The binding is in FINE condition with some marks to the gold gilted page ends. Internally, the book is generally clean with some spotting to the preliminary pages. There are no bookplates or signs of previous ownership. Overall, this is a full leather custom binding that houses the first edition, first printing of Virginia Woolf’s first novel.

A photograph of the binding as well as the inside front cover appears in the photo section of the listing.