The Works of Thomas Hardy. [Including Far from the Madding Crowd; The Mayor of Casterbridge; Jude the Obscure; Tess of the D’Urbervilles; The Trumpet-Major; Two on a Tower; The Well-Beloved.]

London: Macmillan & Company, 1919-20. The Works of Thomas Hardy, signed limited edition. Octavo, thirty-seven volumes, bound in contemporary three quarters dark blue morocco, gilt tooling and titles to the spine. The Mellstock edition, limited to five hundred copies. In near fine condition. A very nice attractively bound set. Thomas Hardy was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, especially William Wordsworth. He was highly critical of much in Victorian society, especially on the declining status of rural people in Britain, such as those from his native South West England. While Hardy wrote poetry throughout his life and regarded himself primarily as a poet, his first collection was not published until 1898. Initially, therefore, he gained fame as the author of such novels as Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891), and Jude the Obscure (1895). During his lifetime, Hardy's poetry was acclaimed by younger poets (particularly the Georgians) who viewed him as a mentor. After his death his poems were lauded by Ezra Pound, W. H. Auden and Philip Larkin.