Virginia Woolf completed her first novel, Melymbrosia, in 1912 when she was thirty years old. The book centres on the emotional and sexual awakening of a young Englishwoman travelling abroad and bristles with social commentary on issues as varied and important as homosexuality, the suffrage movement and colonialism. Woolf was warned, however, that publishing an outspoken indictment of Britain could prove disastrous to her fledgling career as a novelist. Thus she revised the novel extensively, omitting the political candour, until a "quieter" book was published under the title The Voyage Out. Louise DeSalvo has spent seven years uncovering the original novel from Woolf's archives in the New York Public Library. T his book offers a rare and exciting look into the formative mind of the modernist master who revolutionised twentieth century literature. Excellent material for scholars and academics, this book is equally captivating for the more casual reader who would like to gain further insight into the life and mind of Virginia Woolf. Melymbrosia is a "lost classic" recovered.