[HARDY, THOMAS]. Far From the Madding Crowd [(in) The Cornhill Magazine]. London, Cornhill Magazine, January - December 1874.
First appearance in print, [the complete novel extracted from the original twelve monthly serials and bound together]. Leather-bound. Hardcover. Octavo (230 x 150 x 30 mm.). Pp. 673, (1). Handsome binding of green half calf, spine gilt, sides cloth, plain endpapers, page edges unevenly cut. Illustrated with 12 plates and 12 vignettes after drawings by Helen Allingham. Condition: Binding tight and secure, some light shelf wear to covers. Contents nicely preserved being fresh and clean. Without previous ownership markings. Scarce.
Notes: A landmark Victorian novel, here in its first appearance in print in the Cornhill Magazine, published anonymously. Only the plates were used in the subsequent book editions; the vignettes were never reproduced, even though Hardy was fond of them. He later told Edmund Gosse that Helen Allingham "was the best illustrator I ever had" (Purdy).
