Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
George Eliot. Adam Bede. In Three Volumes. Vol. III.. William Blackwood and Sons, 1859.
Price: US$20.00 + shipping
Condition: Fair
Description: Volume 3 only. Cover shows heavy wear, tear, rubbing, staining, and warped boards. Pages are tanned and mostly clean.
Seller: Books From California, Simi Valley, CA, U.S.A.
Eliot, George. Adam Bede. Fifth edition in two volumes.. 5th ed William Blackwood Edinburgh, 1859.
Price: US$32.21 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: Foolscap8vo, viii, 430; [iv], 382, 16 p. Original orange/brown blind-stamped cloth, gilt, pale yellow endpapers. Tiny frays to the head and tail of the backstrips, paper on hinges cracked, covers generally mottled with dull gilt otherwise a good set with the half-titles.
Seller: JIRI Books, Lisburn, United Kingdom
George Eliot. Adam Bede. Volume 2. William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh and London, UK, 1859.
Price: US$40.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: 374pp, 1859. Second volume only (of three volumes. Full leather, gilt page edges and spine title. Marbled endpapers. A light notation in pencil on the first free page. No other marks. Front hinge lightly cracked. No tears. Size: 12mo - over 6? - 7?" tall
Seller: Bookworm Books, Tifton, GA, U.S.A.
Eliot Georges. Adam Bede. William Blackwood & Sons Edinburgh & London, 1859.
Price: US$65.70 + shipping
Description: 8vo(17.7x11/2) HB 4th edition Vol.1vi+429pp Vol.2 vi+382pp+16p publ cat.Brown cloth with bling design & gilt lettering & design to spine- some edge wear & bumping-spines carefully & professionally repaired-still good/good+. Neat owner's names to ffep, some minor foxing throughout else internally v.good+. (820g)
Seller: Bentfinger Book Services, Loughborough, United Kingdom
Eliot George. Adam Bede. William Blackwood and Sons, 1859.
Price: US$83.74 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: All books outside UK sent airmail. Two volume set. A scarce early edition in original brown cloth. Blind design to front and gilt titling to spine. A very good plus set.
Seller: Lavender Fields Books PBFA, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom
Price: US$93.92 + shipping
Description: Fourth edition. In Two Volumes. "Adam Bede" is an evocation of rural England among the hard-working middle-class. Vol I - vi, 429 pp; vi, 382 + 16 pp ads (Messrs Blackwood and Sons). Bound in original orange brown ripple grain cloth boards with gilt lettering and decoration on spines. Yellow eps. Vol I - Ad for "Scenes of Clerical Life" pasted on ffep. Binding loosening - some pages and gatherings loose. Top and bottom of spine chipped. Splits along edges of spine. Corners rubbed. Vol II - front board and backstrip detached between fep and ffep. Binding loosening throughout. Some pages and gatherings loose. Top and bottom of spine chipped with short splits on edge at top. Other nicks in edge of spine at rear board. Corners rubbed. Overall condition Good.
Seller: Owl Books, County Leitrim, Ireland
Price: US$121.10 + shipping
Description: Half titles; light foxing in prelims, two gatherings sl. proud. Contemp. half maroon roan, gilt; a little rubbed. Signature of W. Johns, July '59 on titles. In the smaller format.
Seller: Jarndyce, The 19th Century Booksellers, London, United Kingdom
Price: US$127.15 + shipping
Description: 180mm x 120mm (7" x 5"). 429pp; 382pp +16pp ads. G : in good condition without dust jacket. Cover rubbed with edge-wear. Inner hinges cracked. Sporadic light foxing. Ink inscription to feps
Seller: Barter Books Ltd, Alnwick, NORTH, United Kingdom
Price: US$190.00 + shipping
Description: Stated Second Edition. Good condition. In blindstamped brown cloth covers with gilt lettering on spine., still legible. Square and intact bindings. Clean and unmarked text pages. Previous owner's name on front free endpapers. Cracked but holding front hinges. Bumping and rubbing of ends of spine and corners. Moderate wear. Photos upon request Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall
Seller: Quaker House Books, Catawissa, PA, U.S.A.
Eliot, George. Adam Bede. William Blackwood and Sons, 1859.
Price: US$250.00 + shipping
Condition: Poor
Description: Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood & Sons,1859 (no other dates or editions indicated).Hard Cover. First edition, 3 volumes, with half-titles. The bindings are intact and not splitting. Volumes have remnants of Cawthorn & Hutt Booksellers pasted-on plate to front covers (see image). The endpapers are very thin, browned and brittle. The covers are spotted,worn on edges, corners and binding. Spines are severely creased (see images). The pages have some staining and creases throughout the 3 volumes but very readable. 8vo, vol 1 325pp, vol 2 374pp, vol 3 333pp plus the 16 pp ads. Maroon cloth. Reading copy: covers worn, text browned. Housed in a modern box. Book conditions: poor. George Eliot,pen name of Mary Ann Evans. Author's first published novel. Packaged with care and shipped in a box.
Seller: Needham Book Finders, Santa Clarita, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$322.07 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: In 3 volumes complete. 325, 16; 374; 333 pp. Original blind-stamped brown cloth with gilt lettering to spines. Slight wear to spine ends. Front hinges to vols. 1 & 3 split. Vol. two with text-block loose in case. Sprung sections to each volume. 16-page adverts to rear of volume one. Edmonds & Remnants binder's ticket to rear pastedown of vol. one. Text clean. 8vo.
Seller: Foster Books - Stephen Foster - ABA, ILAB, & PBFA, London, United Kingdom
Price: US$631.25 + shipping
Description: 2 vols., 8vo., Fourth Edition, neat contemporary signature on blank preliminary; elegantly bound in contemporary full tan calf, sides with multiple frame border stopped at corners with gilt rosettes, back with five raised bands ruled in gilt, second compartments with red leather labels framed and lettered in gilt, third compartments framed and lettered in gilt, all other compartments elaborately framed and tooled in gilt, marbled edges, gilt doublures, gilt dentelles, marbled endpapers, a most attractive copy in wholly unrestored period binding. THE BINDING IS SIGNED ON FRONT FREE ENDPAPER VERSOS. Henry Stamper (1802?-1887), master bookbinder, was an associate of Bedford, Lewis, Clarke and Morrell; indeed he may have succeeded Bedford as manager of the Lewis bindery, and his later business passed to Morrell. Examples of his work are held by the Folger Shakespeare Library and the Bodleian. [We are indebted to Laurence Worms for the foregoing information.]
Seller: Island Books, Thakeham, West Sussex, United Kingdom
Price: US$1250.00 + shipping
Description: George Eliot's First Full-Length Novel and her Earliest Popular Success ELIOT, George. Adam Bede. In Three Volumes. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1859. First edition. Three octavo volumes (7 1/8 x 4 1/2 inches; 181 x 114 mm.). [iii-viii], 325, [1, blank]; [iii-viii], 374; [iii-vi], 333, [1, blank] pp. Bound ca. 1865 in three quarter dark blue pebble-grain morocco over marbled boards, ruled in gilt. Spines with five raised bands decoratively tooled and lettered in gilt in compartments, matching marbled end-papers, all edges gilt. Bound without the half-titles. Some light foxing and staining throughout, moderate on preliminary leaves. A very good set in an attractive and near contemporary binding. George Eliot's first full-length novel and her earliest popular success. Adam Bede, the first novelwritten by George Eliot(the pen name of Mary Ann Evans), was published in 1859. It was published pseudonymously, even though Evans was a well-published and highly respected scholar of her time. The novel has remained in print ever since, and is used in university studies of 19th-century English literature. The plot is founded on a story told to George Eliot by her aunt Elizabeth Evans, a Methodistpreacher, and the original of Dinah Morrisof the novel, of a confession of child-murder, made to her by a girl in prison. The story's plot follows four characters' rural lives in the fictional community of Hayslopeâ"a rural, pastoral and close-knit community in 1799. The novel revolves around a love "rectangle" among beautiful but self-absorbed Hetty Sorrel; CaptainArthur Donnithorne, the young squire who seduces her;Adam Bede,her unacknowledged suitor; and Dinah Morris, Hetty's cousin, a fervent, virtuous and beautifulMethodistlay preacher. (The real village where Adam Bede was set isEllastoneon the Staffordshire / Derbyshire border, a few miles from Uttoxeter and Ashbourne, and near toAlton Towers. Eliot's father lived in the village as a carpenter in a substantial house now known as Adam Bede's Cottage). Adam is a local carpenter much admired for his integrity and intelligence, in love with Hetty. She is attracted to Arthur, the charming local squire's grandson and heir, and falls in love with him. When Adam interrupts a tryst between them, Adam and Arthur fight. Arthur agrees to give up Hetty and leaves Hayslope to return to his militia. After he leaves, Hetty Sorrel agrees to marry Adam but shortly before their marriage, discovers she is pregnant. In desperation, she leaves in search of Arthur but she cannot find him. Unwilling to return to the village on account of the shame and ostracism she would have to endure, she delivers her baby with the assistance of a friendly woman she encounters. She subsequently abandons the infant in a field but not being able to bear the child's cries, she tries to retrieve the infant. However, she is too late, the infant having already died of exposure. Hetty is caught and tried for child murder. She is found guilty and sentenced to hang. Dinah enters the prison and pledges to stay with Hetty until the end. Her compassion brings about Hetty's contrite confession. When Arthur Donnithorne, on leave from the militia for his grandfather's funeral, hears of her impending execution, he races to the court and has the sentence commuted totransportation. Ultimately, Adam and Dinah, who gradually become aware of their mutual love, marry and live peacefully with his family. Sadleir 812; Parrish pp. 12/13; Wolff, 2056; Baker & Ross, A4.1.
Seller: David Brass Rare Books, Inc., Calabasas, CA, U.S.A.