The Works of George Eliot: Scenes of Clerical Life, Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe, Romola, Felix Holt the Radical, The Spanish Gypsy, The Legend of Jubal and Other Poems, Daniel Deronda, Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life, Theophrastus Such, Essays and Leaves From a Notebook.

ELIOT, George.

The Works of George Eliot: Scenes of Clerical Life, Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe, Romola, Felix Holt the Radical, The Spanish Gypsy, The Legend of Jubal and Other Poems, Daniel Deronda, Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life, Theophrastus Such, Essays and Leaves From a Notebook.

Rare finely bound first edition set of the works of George Eliot; including her seven novels, poetry, short stories and essays, and the important biography of her by her husband J.W. Cross

Edinburgh and London: Various Publishers, 1858-1885.

$6,000.00

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Uniformly bound set of twelve first editions of works by George Eliot. Octavo, thirty volumes bound in three quarter crushed levant morocco over marbled boards by Club Bindery with gilt titles to the spine in six compartments within raised bands, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt. The set is comprised of twelve first editions including her seven novels, poetry, short stories and essays, and the important biography of her by J.W. Cross, her long-time friend and briefly her husband. The set includes:

Scenes of Clerical Life. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1858. Octavo, two volumes. Complete with half-titles. First edition in book form of Eliot's first works of fiction. The three tales, The sad fortunes of the Reverend Amos Barton, Mr. Gilfil's love-story, and Janet's repentance originally appeared in Blackwood's magazine in 1857 (Sadleir, 818; Wolff, 2062; Parrish, p. 7; Baker & Ross A3.2).
Adam Bede. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1859. Octavo, three volumes. Complete with half-titles. First edition of Eliot's first novel (Sadleir, 812; Parrish, p. 12; NCBEL, Ill, 900).
The Mill on the Floss. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1860. Octavo, three volumes. Volumes II and III complete with half-titles. First edition (Parrish, pp. 14-15; Sadleir, 816a; Wolff, 2060).
Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe. Edinburgh and London: William Blackburn and Sons, 1861. Octavo. Complete with half-title. First edition (Sadleir, 819; Wolff, 2063).
Romola. London: Smith. , Elder & Co., 1863. Three volumes. 8vo. [iv], 336; [iv], 333, [1]; [iv], 292 pp. Without the leaf of advertisements in Volume 2. First edition of this novel set in fifteenth century Florence (Sadleir, 817; Wolff, 2061 ; Parrish, p. 17).
Felix Holt the Radical. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1866. Octavoe, three volumes. Complete with half-titles. Without the 2 final leaves of advertisements. First edition of this politically themed novel (Sadleir, 814; Woolf, 2058).
The Spanish Gypsy. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1868. Octavo. Complete with half-title. First edition of this lyrical poem, written after a trip to Spain in 1867 (NCBEL, Ill, 903).
The Legend of Jubal and Other Poems. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1874. 12mo. Complete with half-title and errata slip. Embossed stamp "with publisher's compliments" to title. Some faint foxing to preliminaries. First edition of this collection of poetry, which includes How Lisa loved the King, Brother and sister, and Stradivarius (Parrish, p. 36; NCBEL, 111, 905).
Daniel Deronda. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1876. Four volumes. 12mo. Complete with all half-titles and errata slip in Volume 2. Without final leaf of advertisements. First edition, first issue in book form. Originally published serially over an eight month period, this novel examines the roles of women, Jews and art in English society (Sadleir, 813).
Middlemarch. A Study of Provincial Life. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1871-72. Octavo, four volumes. Complete with half-titles and errata slip in Volume 1. First edition, bound from the original parts. This was the first novel to be published in eight half-volume books, which were issued every two months (Sadleir, 815).
Theophrastus Such. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1879. Octavo. Complete with publisher's slip. First edition. The publication of this book was delayed by the death of George Henry Lewes (181778), Eliot's companion. Eliot died eighteen months later (NCBEL, Ill, 905).
Essays and Leaves From a Notebook. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1884. Octavo. Complete with half-title. First edition. Contains numerous essays originally published in the Westminster Review, including Three months in Weimar, Evangelical teaching: Dr. Cumming, and Address to working men, by Felix Holt (NCBEL, 111, 906).
Cross, J[ames] W[alters], editor. George Eliot's Life as Related in Her Letters and Journals. Arranged and edited by her husband. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1885. Octavo, three volumes. With 3 frontispieces (2 portraits), 7 plates, and 2 page facsimile of Eliot's handwriting. Complete with half-titles, and errata slip bound into Volume 3. First edition of the first biographical work on Eliot. Cross and Eliot were only married six months. Despite this fact, Cross' work is considered to be the standard, having compiled the work from Eliot's correspondence, and with the cooperation of her friends, family and others, such as Charles Dickens.

In good condition. A very rare complete first edition set.

From Adam Bede to The Mill on the Floss and Silas Marner, Eliot presented the cases of social outsiders and small-town persecution. Felix Holt, the Radical and The Legend of Jubal were overtly political, and political crisis is at the heart of Middlemarch, in which she presents the stories of a number of denizens of a small English town on the eve of the Reform Bill of 1832; the novel is notable for its deep psychological insight and sophisticated character portraits. The roots of her realist philosophy can be found in her review of John Ruskin's Modern Painters in Westminster Review in 1856. Readers in the Victorian era particularly praised her books for their depictions of rural society, for which she drew on her own early experiences, and she shared with Wordsworth the belief that there was much interest and importance in the mundane details of ordinary country lives. Eliot did not, however, confine herself to her bucolic roots. Romola, an historical novel set in late 15th century Florence and touching on the lives of several real persons such as the priest Girolamo Savonarola, displays her wider reading and interests. Middlemarch, has been described as the greatest novel in the English language by Martin Amis and by Julian Barne.