Books

First edition. 3 volumes, 303, 297 and 320 pages respectively + frontispiece map to vol 1. In late-Victorian Zaehnsdorf green half-calf bindings, with patterned green paper covered boards, gilt to the top edges of the text blocks and marbled endpapers front and rear. All three volumes retain their half-titles. The books are reasonably firmly bound, the leather is quite worn, rubbed and scuffed and the boards are slightly rubbed with some minor chipping to the paper, the hinges are a little tender. The text blocks are age toned, slightly marked and somewhat foxed. One of Hardy's great novels, expertly weaving controversial themes of adultery and desire with a traditional rural setting, itself a protest against the increasing tendency towards urbanisation that followed in the wake of industrialisation and the expansion of the railways. This is a not displeasing first edition set in fairly contemporary bindings.

The Return of the Native is one of Thomas Hardy's novels of character and environment, first published as a serial in the magazine Belgravia, a publication known for its sensationalism, and was presented in twelve monthly installments from January to December 1878. The novel follows the lives of people in the fictional Egdon Heath, a symbol of Hardy's vision of nature and human passions.