Woolf completed Between the Acts in November 1940[5] while living at Monk's House in Sussex.[6] Her biography of Roger Fry[7] had been published in July, and she had been disappointed in its reception. The Woolfs' London homes had been destroyed in The Blitz in September and October. Woolf fell into a depression[8] before her suicide on 28 March 1941, and the novel was published posthumously later that year.[9]
At the time of her death Woolf had yet to correct the typescript of the novel, and a number of critics consider it to be unfinished.[10] The book has a note by Woolf's husband, Leonard Woolf:[6]
The MS. of this book had been completed, but had not been finally revised for the printer, at the time of Virginia Woolf's death. She would not, I believe, have made any large or material alterations in it, though she would probably have made a good many small corrections or revisions before passing the final proofs.
