The Woodlanders
London: Macmillan and Co., 1887. Three volumes, measuring 7.5 x 4.75 inches: [4], 302, [2]; [4], 328; [4], 316. Original dark green bead-grain cloth, double-rule border and panel stamped in black and blind, spines lettered in gilt with gilt publisher’s device and decorative rules at top and bottom stamped in black, brown-coated endpapers. Publisher’s advertisement leaf bound at rear of Volume I. Bookplate of Arthur Spingarn in each volume. Light rubbing and bubbling to cloth, some pages roughly opened, hinges cracked in Volume III. Housed in a custom clamshell box.
First edition of Thomas Hardy’s favorite of his own novels, in the publisher’s first binding. The Woodlanders represents a number of Hardy’s signature themes: an unequal marriage, friction between social classes, the experience of rural life in England. “Over and above the genuine emotion which she raised in his heart there hung the sense that he was casting a die by impulse which he might not have thrown by judgment.” This copy from the library of American civil rights lawyer, NAACP president, and noted book collector Arthur Spingarn ((1878-1971), with his distinctive Art Deco bookplate designed by Ruth Reeves. Sadleir 1120, Purdy, 54-57. A very good copy, with excellent provenance.
Price: $3,500.00