London: The Hogarth Press, 1925. First edition. First edition, first impression (one of only 2,000 copies), lacking the scarce Vanessa Bell jacket. Original dark red cloth, titles to spine in gilt. A handsome, very Nearly Fine copy with just a bit of foxing to the closed text-block. Signed and dated in ink by Hugh Walpole, Virginia Woolf's close friend and literary collaborator, in May of 1925, with his red morocco bookplate on the front pastedown. Housed in a custom cloth clamshell case.

Mrs. Dalloway is regarded by many as the author's masterpiece; certainly, it is one of her best-loved works. "Woolf maintained that her generation had to break the mould of the novel in order to speak of the radically changed world around them [and] Mrs. Dalloway did break the mould...It established her as a powerful force in the British Modernist literary scene" (Miller).

Hugh Walpole and Virginia Woolf became friends in 1928 and maintained a close creative and personal bond until their deaths in 1941. For fifteen years, the two writers discussed their craft, exchanging "correspondence, reviews, acknowledgements, dedications, presentation copies of books, condolences, concerns, and congratulations" (Parker T. Gordon, "Virginia Woolf and Hugh Walpole"). Woolf was a major creative influence on Walpole, who, in turn, reviewed proofs of Woolf's novels, offered feedback on her work, and, under the auspices of his Book Society, collaborated with Woolf's Hogarth Press. In his recollection of his friend, written shortly after her death, Walpole described Mrs. Dalloway as Woolf's best novel ("and The Waves her most beautiful poem"). He also emphasized the depth of their friendship: "I told her more than I ever told any other human being, more than I shall ever tell any human being again," Walpole wrote. "I discovered that beneath the mocking humour, the sometimes stern enquiry, the sharp wonder, the restless investigation, there was a kindness of heart and tenderness of feeling rich with an intense personal charity" (Virginia Woolf: Interviews and Recollections, p. 190).

Kirkpatrick A9a. Woolmer 82. Near Fine (Item #7258)