The first challenge in reading Pilgrimage is getting a copy of the books
The only complete edition currently in print that includes all thirteen volumes is from the Virago Modern Classics series. Here are their titles and ISBNs, as well as links to several online retailers. However, if you are not in a hurry, please take this information to your local independent bookseller, who will be happy to order them.
- Pilgrimage Volume 1 (Pointed Roofs, Backwater, Honeycomb): 978-0860681007
- Pilgrimage Volume 2 (The Tunnel, Interim, Deadlock): 978-0860681014
- Pilgrimage Volume 3 (Revolving Lights, The Trap, Oberland): 978-0860681021
- Pilgrimage Volume 4 (Dawn’s Left Hand, Clear Horizon, Dimple Hill, March Moonlight): 978-0860681038
Print copies: The Oxford Edition of the Works of Dorothy Richardson
Under the leadership of Professor Scott McCracken of Queen Mary University of London, Oxford University Press is publishing an authoritative set of the works of Dorothy Richardson. The first two volumes of Pilgrimage — Pointed Roofs and Backwater– were published as Volume IV in the set in 2020. To date, this is the only release from this series and, hence, not an option if you want to read the complete novel. Aimed at academic libraries, the book is expensive but beyond a doubt the most carefully edited and annotated version of these texts.
- The Oxford Edition of the Works of Dorothy Richardson, Volume IV: Pilgrimage 1 & 2: Pointed Roofs and Backwater: 978-0198860266
Print copies: Broadview Press
In 2014, the Broadview Press published two volumes of Pilgrimage — Pointed Roofs (Volume 1) and The Tunnel (Volume 4) — in well-presented paper and electronic editions edited by Scott Ross and Tara Thomson. These editions provide explanatory notes and annotations missing from the Virago Modern Classics set.
- Pointed Roofs: 978-1551117997
- The Tunnel: 978-1554811106
Print copies: Individual volumes
Because of copyright laws, only volumes 1 through 8 of Pilgrimage are currently in the public domain. This is one reason why the Virago Modern Classics set is the only complete edition currently in print.
There are numerous publishers who have released one or more of the public domain volumes of Pilgrimage in paperback and electronic format. However, in some cases, the books are merely scans run through an optical character reading program and without any proper editing or proofreading and are not recommended.
Print copies: Used
There have only been three complete editions of Pilgrimage published.
In 1967, a four-volume hardback set that included Volume 13, March Moonlight, which was edited by Dorothy Richardson’s sister-in-law, Rose Odle, after Richardson’s death in 1957, was published in the UK by J. M. Dent and in the U. S. by Alfred A. Knopf. Complete sets from either publisher are scarce and usually sell for several hundred dollars or more.
In 1976, the Popular Library published a mass-market paperback edition with text identical to the 1967 Dent/Knopf edition. Copies of individual volumes are often available fairly cheaply, but complete sets in good condition are almost as scarce as the 1967 edition.
Finally, the four volume Virago Modern Classics set has been in and out of print since 1979 and, as with the Popular Library edition, copies of individual volumes, particularly Volume 1, are often available cheaply but complete sets are scarce.
In 1937, J. M. Dent published a four-volume set that included Volumes One through Twelve (Dimple Hill), and in 1938, Alfred A. Knopf published a similar set in the U.S.. These sets are slightly less scarce but often are not in very good condition due to age and wear.
It is probably not worth looking for first editions of Volumes One through Twelve of Pilgrimage unless you are a collector or have exceptional patience and good luck.
Electronic editions
Plain Text, EPUB, Kindle, and HTML (online) versions of the first eight volumes of Pilgrimage are available from Project Gutenberg via the links below:
Due to differences in copyright laws, the remaining five volumes, which are in the public domain in Canada but not the U.S. or U.K. (yet), are available through the work of the Faded Page collective in Canada via the links below:
The two volumes published by the Broadview Press (Pointed Roofs, 978-1770485389 and The Tunnel, 978-1770485471) are available in EPUB and secure PDF formats. Other electronic editions are likely not have been thoroughly edited and are not recommended.
Audiobooks
Finally, there are two audiobook readings of Pointed Roofs and one of Backwater available on Librivox.org: