Flush. A Biography

Virginia Woolf. Illustrated by Vanessa Bell.

The Hogarth Press. London. October 1933. First edition, first impression. Hardback, 8vo; buff cloth-bound boards, gilt titles to spine, dust jacket. 164 pages. With four drawings by Vanessa Bell and six further illustrations on hors texte plates. English. 220 x 150mm. 0.4kg. . Very good, in very good dust jacket; slight wear to head of spine with a short 1cm tear, repaired with tape to verso, light toning to spine, some spotting; mottling to cloth spine and edges, some light dustiness and spotting to edges, occasional spotting to first few text pages, some off-setting to half-title, no inscriptions; binding and jacket firm.

'This is an attempt to write the life of a dog, Mrs. Browning's spaniel Flush, who not only played an active part in human life, and inspired poetry, but was himself a dog of worth and character well deserving celebration.' Flush was the name of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's dog. In her "biography" Viriginia Woolf blends fact and imagination to channel the life of Browning, another oppressed writer, through the consciousness of her pet. Whilst the subject seems innocuous enough, Woolf uses the device to explore themes of social class, city-life, and oppression. The first edition of the book was published on 5th October 1933 in an edition of 12,680 copies. The dust jacket states that this is the 'Large Paper Edition 7s. 6d. Net'. Woolf's sister Vanessa Bell provides four line drawings made especially for the book. [Howard Woolmer. A Checklist of the Hogarth Press. 1986. No. 334; Kirkpatrick. A Bibliography of Virginia Woolf. 1980. No. A19(a)]