Complete set of George Eliot’s novels in first edition.

Publisher: Edinburgh and London, William Blackwood and Sons [and] London, Smith, Elder and Co., 1858-85

Stock code: 60324

Price: £6,000

All first editions. All half-titles present with the exception of Romola. Includes her seven novels, poetry, essays and other literary works, as well as the 3 volumes of her life written by her husband John Cross. Eliot's novels were popular for their political views and depict ions of rural society for which she drew on her own early experience. However Eliot did not confine herself to her bucolic roots. Romola is a historical romance set in late 15th century Florence and The Spanish Gypsy, a poem she wrote after a visit to Spain in 1867, both reflecting her wider reading and interests. Whilst Eliot's verse was not so well received the popularity of her novels has endured. Middlemarch is still considered one of the greatest English novels and has been described by Virginia Woolf as "the magnificent book that, with all its imperfections, is one of the few English novels written for grown-up people."

30 volumes, octavo (190 mm × 123 mm). Near-contemporary dark blue half morocco, titles and decoration to spines, marbled boards and endpapers, top edges gilt. Light toning to fore-edge and the occasional minor blemish, an excellent set.