“A SUPREME NOVELIST IN THE AGE OF GREAT NOVELISTS”
ELIOT, George. Works. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, circa 1880. Twenty volumes. Small octavo, contemporary three-quarter green calf, raised bands, elaborately gilt-decorated spines, navy, red and tan morocco spine labels, marbled boards and endpapers, top edges gilt, uncut and partly unopened. $3200.
“Cabinet” edition of Eliot’s novels, very handsomely bound.
Eliot, who pioneered the method of psychological analysis characteristic of modern fiction, has been praised for the qualities that make her "a supreme novelist in an age of great novelists: her penetrating sympathy, her deep knowledge of humanity, her dramatic and descriptive power, her lambent humor, and the reflection of her extraordinary mind" (Kunitz & Haycraft, 212). Small owner bookplates.
Interior fine, only very mild wear to contemporary calf. An exceptionally handsome set.