SACKVILLE-WEST, Vita. All Passion Spent. London: The Hogarth Press. 1931. 8vo. pp. 297, [i]. First edition. Publisher’s pale green cloth lettered in gilt to spine. Very good, v. gently bumped to tips, a little darkened at extremities, the binding tight and very faintly rolled. Some light spots of foxing to textblock edges, with only a handful internally. Small Toronto bookseller stamp beneath front flap, else clean throughout without inscriptions. The Trekkie Ritchie dust jacket complete with 7/6 net price to the spine panel, small chips and nicks to most corners, one 3cm tear to rear panel top edge, the panels each a little grubby and foxed to rear, but nevertheless attractive. 4040 copies printed. (Woolmer 270).

Considered a companion to friend and lover Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own (1929), All Passion Spent is more a rejection of feminism, instead an avowal of choice for all. Told through the eyes of an octogenarian recently emancipated by widowhood as she delves into her bittersweet memories. Trekkie Ritchie’s design and colour certainly add to VSW’s motives.