THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE

First Easton Collector's Edition by subscribtion. With illustrations and dramatic wood engravings by Agnes Miller Parker. 8vo, in the publisher's original green leather, lettered and intricately decorated in gilt between four raised bands on the spine, decorated in gilt with leaf patterns and rules on both covers. a.e.g. 416 pp. A pristine copy, as mint.

Edizione: hardy's sixth novel published in 1878. controversial at the time, it became one of hardy's most popular and acclaimed novels in the 20th century. the return of the native was written at riverside villa, sturnmonster newton, though probably finished at upper tooting where the hardys took a house in march of 1878. the first seven chapters were written by the summer of 1877 and the first two books by november, and serial publication was begun in chatto and windus's "belgravia" in january 1878. <br> "man's fate as a plaything of the gods and victim of the uncaring universe, overwhelmed by a world he cannot understand - such is the moral a reader might draw from hardy's absorbing novel." - the publisher<br>