HARDY, Thomas.

£17,500 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

The Works. The Mellstock edition, one of 500 sets signed by the author on the limitation page of volume I. The Mellstock is one of the most attractive collected editions of Hardy, printed in a clear and legible type, this set finely bound by the London binders, Morrell.At Hardy's suggestion the edition was named after his fictional "Mellstock", a combination of the Dorset hamlet Stinsford, where his heart is now buried, with the Higher and Lower Bockhamptons. The publication was originally projected in July 1914 but was halted by the outbreak of the First World War. The text is largely a resetting of the Wessex edition with the exception of A Pair of Blue Eyes, for which Hardy sent the publishers five pages of corrections and additions on 18 June 1919 (Purdy, p. 288).

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