Dynasts, The

London: Macmillan and Co., 1927. One of 525 Large-Paper Copies, Signed by Thomas Hardy

HARDY, Thomas. The Dynasts. An Epic-Drama of the War with Napoleon, in Three Parts, Nineteen Acts, and One Hundred and Thirty Scenes, the Time Covered by the Action Being about Ten Years. London: Macmillan and Co., 1927.

Limited to 525 copies printed on large paper, signed by the author. Three large octavo volumes (10 11/16 x 7 3/4 inches; 272 x 197 mm.). [2, limitation leaf (recto blank)], xii, 165, [1, blank], [1, colophon], [1, blank]; [2], vi, 211, [1, colophon]; vii, [1, blank], 235, [1, blank], [1, colophon], [3, blank] pp. Etched frontispiece portrait by Francis Dodd (signed in pencil by the artist). Printed in red and black "in the Baskerville fount" at the Chiswick Press.

Original quarter vellum, ruled in gilt, over decorative paper boards. Spines lettered in gilt. All edges uncut. A very fine set. In the original brown printed dust jackets. Individually chemised and housed together in a quarter dark blue morocco slipcase.

"The Dynasts [first published 1904-1908] is the culmination of Hardy's lifelong interest in Napoleon and the Napoleonic wars. Through more than thirty years this epic-drama was taking shape in his mind...From entries in his diary it is possible to trace the slow development of his design from the first suggestion in June 1875 of a group of Napoleonic ballads, ‘forming altogether an Iliad of Europe from 1789 to 1815', to the completion of The Dynasts in the September of 1907. A ballad-sequence was discarded in favour of drama in June 1877, with the note, ‘Consider a grand drama, based on the wars with Napoleon, or some one campaign (but not as Shakespeare's historical dramas). It might be called ‘Napoleon', or ‘Josephine', or by some other person's name'" (Purdy, p. 121).

Purdy, pp. 134-135.