Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy, Signed Custom Harcourt Binding

Binding Details:  Signed custom binding by the Harcourt Bindery, Charlestown, Massachusetts bound in morocco leather over complimentary cloth covered boards with a raised band to the spine and gold gilt titles and ruling. There are single gold gilt lines to the boards, hand-sewn silk endbands, marbled endpapers, with the top page edges gold gilted. The Harcourt Bindery label appears on the bottom of the last free endpaper.

Book Details:  Originally published by Macmillan in 1912 as part of the definitive Thomas Hardy collection called The Wessex Edition, this is the limited edition reprint of the 1912 edition published by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich in 1981 with a limitation of 250 copies. Loyal Books in their review wrote, “Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy is the quintessential cliff hanger. Incidentally, Hardy is the author with whom this term actually originated. In one of his books, A Pair of Blue Eyes, he had his hero literally hanging from a cliff face, giving rise to the term in Victorian literature. Tess of the d'Urbervilles presents a very interesting picture of Victorian England at the time of great social and economic change. Tess's father's ill-conceived and foolish delusion that his family is descended from nobility leads him to push his daughter into disaster. Hardy also presents several moral dilemmas in the book—the conventional ideas of love, marriage, family and security are explored and found wanting as more modern ideas begin to emerge in the new age of industrialism. The contrast between the “pure” and unspoiled countryside and the “wicked” and tainted cities is constantly presented. Heavily censored and censured when it was first published in 1891, modern day readers of today will find much that is relevant, apart from its being a good, satisfying read in the best traditions of storytelling.”

Measures approximately 9” x 6” with 508 pages as well as a preface by Thomas Hardy and a table of contents. Please note that the pages are uncut as originally published in the 1912 edition.

Condition Report:  The binding is in FINE condition. Internally, the book is very clean with no signs of previous ownership. Overall, this is a beautiful binding that houses the definitive edition of Hardy’s classic novel.

A photograph of the binding appears in the photo section of the listing.