London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1863. 2 pp Vol II undated ads. Original green cloth with spines decorated in gilt. First Edition, which consisted of 2,288 copies printed. Her fourth novel, ROMOLA was the author's own favorite -- and quite a departure from her first three (ADAM BEDE, THE MILL.....
Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1861. 16 pp terminal ads, undated. Original blind-stamped cinnamon-brown cloth. First Edition of George Eliot's only single-volume novel ("a short and simple one, but flawlessly fashioned"). This was her third novel, following ADAM BEDE and THE MILL ON THE FLOSS (published in the.....
[an amazingly fine copy] Translated from the French Édition Définitive by Eleanor Marx-Aveling. London: Vizetelly & Co., 1886. Original aqua-blue cloth decorated in gilt, black and dark grey. First English Edition of Flaubert's masterpiece, which was destined to become one of the great classics of world literature. Portraying the frustrations.....
and What People Thought of Him. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1894. 2 pp undated ads. Original red cloth decorated in black and gilt. First Edition of the author's first novel, based on his own abortive efforts to enter politics in his hometown of Brooklyn. The semi-realistic PETER STIRLING is.....
included in "Round the Sofa." London: Sampson Low, Son and Co., 1861. 2 pp ads dated July 1861 (last leaf of final gathering). Original blind-stamped green cloth with spine decorated in gilt. First English Edition, so titled, of this collection of six short stories (the title one, at 164 pages.....
[the copy of Gissing's agent] London: Lawrence & Bullen, 1892. Original olive-green cloth. First Edition. This was Gissing's only one-volume novel published during the three-decker era (which ended in 1894). Gissing would have liked to write shorter, more-concise fiction, but the lending libraries demanded three volumes; after 1894 Gissing tried.....
London: Richard Bentley and Son, 1890. Original patterned paper-covered boards with brown cloth spines. First Edition, which consisted of 1,000 copies (of which, according to the publisher, only 492 were sold -- but that may have been Bentley's ruse to avoid paying Gissing "bonuses" that would kick in if 850.....
[one of only 500 copies] London: Smith, Elder, & Co., 1888. 2 pp Vol III undated ads. Original mixed-grain terra-cotta cloth. First Edition, which consisted of only 500 copies published on 15 November 1888. Although A LIFE'S MORNING was Gissing's sixth novel published, it was his fourth written (before DEMOS.....
London, Paris & Melbourne: Cassell and Company, 1895. 4 pp ads dated March 1896. Original mustard yellow cloth decorated in red. First Edition of this novella, being a volume in "Cassell's Pocket Library," which was edited by Max Pemberton. With the 1894 demise of the three-decker format and the lengthy.....
New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, (1898). Original olive green cloth pictorially decorated in light green, black and red. First American Edition, first state, issued in late September 1898 -- about a month after Methuen's London edition. Quite different from his earlier grim novels of social realism, this has been.....
With 20 Illustrations by F. S. Wilson. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1895. 24 pp ads dated Aug 1895. Original dark blue-green cloth, beveled. First Edition of this novel about a "shopgirl with a past." It was serialized as THE WAY OF THE TRANSGRESSOR, but its title was changed when.....
(Together, two volumes.) London: Printed for Distribution amongst Private Subscribers Only, 1894/1897. Original blind-stamped green/maroon cloth. These two collections of ribald verse were clandestine publications by the London publisher Leonard Smithers -- who at the turn of the century was the publisher of choice (often the only choice) for writers.....
A Novel. With an Etching by H. Macbeth-Raeburn and a Map of Wessex. (London and New York: Harper & Brothers, 1898.) Original dark green cloth with monogram device in gilt. "Wessex Novels" edition, American issue. DESPERATE REMEDIES was Hardy's first novel, first published in 1871 in three volumes; here it.....
A Novel. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1874. Endpaper ads dated June 5th, 1875. Original cream cloth decorated in black. First American Edition of Hardy's first book, being a volume in the "Leisure Hour Series" of Henry Holt. Though this was his first book published in England (anonymously, in.....
A Comedy in Chapters. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1876. Endpaper ads dated May 9, 1876. Original cream cloth decorated in black. First American Edition, issued as a volume in Henry Holt's "Leisure Hour Series." This was Hardy's fifth novel -- following FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD and preceding.....
With an Etching by H. Macbeth-Raeburn and a Map of Wessex. (London:) James R. Osgood, McIlvaine & Co., (1896). Original dark blue-green cloth with monogram device in gilt. First Edition of Hardy's last great novel, issued as Vol. VIII of "The Wessex Novels." Titled HEARTS INSURGENT at the time of.....
With an Etching by H. Macbeth-Raeburn and a Map of Wessex. (London:) James R. Osgood, McIlvaine & Co., (1896). Original dark blue-green cloth with monogram device in gilt. First Edition of Hardy's last great novel, issued as Vol. VIII of "The Wessex Novels." Titled HEARTS INSURGENT at the time of.....
Illustrated. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1896. Original dark green cloth with monogram device in gilt. First American (and first illustrated) Edition of Hardy's last novel, actually issued in November 1895. The English edition, published a week or two earlier, was unillustrated except for a frontispiece; the American edition, however.....
London: Smith, Elder, & Co., 1878. 2 pp undated ads in Vol II. Bound in full dark blue morocco, dentelles ornately gilt, blue linen endpapers. First Edition, which consisted of only 1000 copies. This is one of the four novels typically cited as constituting the peak of Hardy's oeuvre --.....
New York: Norman L. Munro, n.d. [July 16, 1883]. Original printed terra-cotta wrappers. A very early, but not quite first, edition of this "short hastily written novel" [Hardy himself]. It constituted his first contribution to the Graphic in England -- as the Summer Number for 1883; it was also arranged.....
A Novel. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1880. Undated endpaper ads. Original mustard yellow cloth decorated in black. First American Edition (it is uncertain whether this or Munro's "Seaside Library" edition preceded; Holt's was, however, the authorized one, and also it was listed in Publishers' Weekly a week earlier).....
New York: John W. Lovell Company, n.d. [1882]. Original brown cloth decorated in black. Early (first?) American edition. This Hardy novel first appeared serially in Atlantic Monthly, where it ran from May through December 1882, paving the way for it to be pirated once complete. The three-volume English edition came.....
[original cloth, near-fine] London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, 1882. Original green cloth lettered in gilt. First Edition, which consisted of only 1000 copies -- most of which were bought up (at half-price) by the lending libraries. This is Hardy's tale about a young astronomer and an older woman.....
Illustrated by E. Boyd Smith. Westminster: Archibald Constable & Co., 1899. Original olive green cloth pictorially decorated in black and red. First Edition, English issue, of this collection of fourteen tales -- including a few about Brer Rabbit and friends. This is a children's story book in the same general.....
[a handsome copy] The FolkLore of the Old Plantation. With Illustrations by Frederick S. Church and James H. Moser. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1881. 8 pp undated ads. Original green cloth pictorially decorated in black and gilt. First Edition, first printing, of Joel Chandler Harris's first and most.....
