Hardy, Thomas. A PAIR OF BLUE EYES [VOLUME ONE ONLY]. Tinsley Brothers, London, 1873.

Price: US$250.00 + shipping

Condition: Good

Description: [6], 303 pages, with the half-title. 18 x 12 cm. This is only volume I. Lacks the boards and blank endpapers. Spine lettered and decoratively tooled in gilt in compartments. A good set sells for thousands of dollars. This volume is being offered for a small fraction of the price of a set. Top edge gilt. Book is tight, solid and the pages are clean, five raised bands, gilt trim and gilt title on spine. Hardy's third published novel. A Pair of Blue Eyes tells the story of the young woman Elfride and her competing lovers; after an aborted elopement with one of her suitors, Elfride determines to marry the other, whom she feels she truly loves. After he discovers the extent of her previous romantic entanglements, however, he breaks off their match. The miserable Elfride eventually marries someone else entirely, but dies soon after, still pining for the lover who discarded her. With its author's sophisticated command of language and flair for the unconventional in his fiction, A Pair of Blue Eyes contains one of the most sensationally erotic scenes in Victorian literature, when Elfride removes her petticoats and undergarments to form a rope to pull her true love up to safety after a fall off a cliff. Purdy, pp. 8-13. Sadleir 1112. Wolff 2986. HBS 38846. One of about 500 copies of Hardy's third novel, originally titled "A Winning Tongue Had He." According to Purdy, A Pair of Blue Eyes is the first of Hardy's novels to be bear the author's own name, the first two having been published under a pen name and "By the author of.," respectively. Purdy also notes that the novel was written during Hardy's courtship of Emma Gifford, and several of its scenes and characters reflect real life experiences to a greater extent than the author cared to admit.

Seller: Meir Turner, New York, NY, U.S.A.

HARDY, Thomas. Pair of Blue Eyes. Tinsley Brothers, London, 1873.

Price: US$4500.00 + shipping

Description: First edition in book form (first published in Tinsleys' Magazine from September 1872 to July 1873). One of presumably 500 copies printed. Three small octavo (6 5/8 x 4 3/8 inches; 168 x 110 mm). [4], 303, [1, blank]; [4], 311, [1, blank]; [4], 262 pp. Bound without half-titles. Late nineteenth-century half blue morocco over marbled boards. Boards ruled in gilt. Spines stamped and lettered in gilt, and with gilt roses in four compartments. Marbled endpapers. Top edge gilt. Occasional light staining. Overall a very nice set in a handsome binding. Hardy's third published novel, A Pair of Blue Eyes tells the story of the young woman Elfride and her competing lovers; after an aborted elopement with one of her suitors, Elfride determines to marry the other, whom she feels she truly loves. After he discovers her the extent of her previous romantic entanglements, however, he breaks off their match. The miserable Elfride eventually marries someone else entirely, but dies soon after, still pining for the lover who discarded her. With its author's sophisticated command of language and flair for the unconventional in his fiction, A Pair of Blue Eyes contains one of the most sensationally erotic scenes in Victorian literature, when Elfride removes her petticoats and undergarments to form a rope to pull her true love up to safety after a fall off a cliff. "Hardy's third published novel, A Pair of Blue Eyes has often been overshadowed by the popularity of its successor, Far from the Madding Crowd. Yet it remains notable, not merely for showing the full emergence of those ironies of plot which characterize his later and better-known work but also for its autobiographical qualities. The setting, Stephen Smith's profession, his reasons for going to Cornwall, and even his embarrassment about his class origins: all these echo the circumstances of Hardy's courtship of Emma Gifford only shortly before he began writing the novel. The portrait of Elfride herself is perhaps the most interesting of Hardy's several attempts to capture the charm he found in Emma at their first meeting" (The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English). Purdy, pp. 8-13. Sadleir 1112. HBS 66828. $4,500.

Seller: Heritage Book Shop, ABAA, Beverly Hills, CA, U.S.A.

Hardy, Thomas. A PAIR OF BLUE EYES. Tinsley Brothers, London, 1873.

Price: US$7475.00 + shipping

Description: 3 volumes. Vol.1-303 pages. Vol.2-311 pages. Vol.3-262 pages. All edges marbled. Pale green and beige flower patterned endpapers. Previous owner's small stamp on front and back paste-down endpapers and on title-page. Books are tight, clean and corners are not bumped. A few pages have some marks. Original half burgundy leather with brown cloth (silk), raised bands, gilt trim and gitl titles on spine. VG+ to FINE.

Seller: J. Wyatt Books, Ottawa, ON, Canada

HARDY, Thomas; ZAEHNSDORF, binder. Pair of Blue Eyes, A.. London: Tinsley Brothers, 1873, 1873.

Price: US$8500.00 + shipping

Description: Number One in Michael Sadleirs 'Comparative Scarcities' Complete with all three half-titles HARDY, Thomas. A Pair of Blue Eyes. A Novel. In Three Volumes. London: Tinsley Brothers, 1873. First edition in book form (first published in Tinsleys' Magazine from September 1872 to July 1873). One of presumably 500 copies printed. Three small octavo volumes. [6], 303, [1, blank]; [6], 311, [1, blank]; [6], 262 pp. Complete with half-titles. Bound ca. 1910 by Zaehnsdorf in three quarter green crushed morocco gilt over green cloth boards ruled in gilt. Spines lettered and decoratively tooled in gilt. Marbled endpapers, top edges gilt. With the bookplate of Anthony Conyers Surtees on front pastedown. A superb copy of this very rare title. According to Michael Sadleir in his 'Comparative Scarcities' A pair of Blue Eyes is number I (Sadleir I, p. 378). A Pair of Blue Eyes. The book describes the love triangle of a young woman, Elfride Swancourt, and her two suitors from very different backgrounds. Stephen Smith is a socially inferior but ambitious young man who adores her and with whom she shares a country background. "Hardy's third published novel, A Pair of Blue Eyes has often been overshadowed by the popularity of its successor, Far from the Madding Crowd. Yet it remains notable, not merely for showing the full emergence of those ironies of plot which characterize his later and better-known work but also for its autobiographical qualities. The setting, Stephen Smith's profession, his reasons for going to Cornwall, and even his embarrassment about his class origins: all these echo the circumstances of Hardy's courtship of Emma Gifford only shortly before he began writing the novel. The portrait of Elfride herself is perhaps the most interesting of Hardy's several attempts to capture the charm he found in Emma at their first meeting" (The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English). Purdy, pp. 8-13; Sadleir 1112; Webb, pp. 6-7; Wolff 2986.

Seller: David Brass Rare Books, Inc., Calabasas, CA, U.S.A.