ELIOT, George. Felix Holt. The Radical. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons. 1866.
Three vols, 8vo. Original brick red publisher’s cloth, embossed in blind to boards, lettered and decorated in gilt to spines; pale yellow endpapers; pp. I: [v], 2-303, [1]; II: [v], 2-290; III: [v], 2-283, [1], [4, ads], half-titles present in all three volumes; slight lean to all three volumes, with some rubbing to edges and extremities, and dustiness to the upper edge, hinges reinforced with conservation tape; internally, save for the odd spot, very clean, with occasional light corner creasing; hinges expertly strengthened; pp. 26-27 of vol. III roughly opened; a very good set; bookseller’s ticket ‘Myers & Co. … London’, W1’ to front pastedown of vol. I; ownership signature of Francis Ley of Epperstone Manor in ink to prelims of vols I-II (see below), with purple ink stamps to front free endpaper of vol. II.
First edition of George Eliot’s fourth novel, in Carter’s binding variant ‘B’.
Felix Holt is a social novel, romance, and tragedy set against the political upheavals surrounding the Reform Act of 1832. At its centre are Harold Transome, a wealthy young landowner whose decision to stand for Parliament as a radical scandalises his community; Felix Holt, an idealistic and uncompromising advocate of working-class education; and Esther Lyon, the local clergyman’s daughter, who finds herself torn between the two men.
Published in 1866, after the success of The Mill on the Floss and before Middlemarch, Felix Holt has remained one of Eliot’s less frequently read novels. Yet it is among her most politically engaged works, combining a compelling personal drama with a perceptive examination of electoral reform, class tensions, and the workings of political power. Although its initial reception was mixed, it is now recognised as an important expression of Eliot’s social and political thought.
Provenance: Two volumes bearing the signature of English industrialist Sir Francis Ley (1846–1916). He was created a Baronet of Epperstone Manor in 1905.
Baker & Ross A8.1; Carter, Binding Variants, p. 111.
SKU: 2113623