Hardy, Thomas | An exceptionally bright copy of The Woodlanders

Property from the Workman Collection

Hardy, Thomas

The Woodlanders. London: Macmillan and Co., 1887

3 vols., 8vo. Half-titles. Original green cloth, publisher's secondary binding, covers ruled in black, spines gilt-lettered, black coated endpapers; endpapers of vol. 1 just split, lower joint of vol. 2 cracked. Housed in custom green morocco clamshell case.

First edition. 

“The secret of quiet happiness lay in limiting the ideas and aspirations.”

The Woodlanders, which Hardy sometimes referred to as his favorite novel, can be viewed as an attack on a society that values status and socially sanctioned behavior over good character and honest emotions. With its intense treatment of the natural world, and the individual's relationship to it, in recent years The Woodlanders has been the focus of new scholarly attention, particularly in the field of environmental studies and ecocriticism. 

A an exceptionally bright set. 

REFERENCE:

Purdy 54; Sadleir 1120

PROVENANCE:

Carroll Atwood Wilson (booklables to front pastedowns)