Scenes of Clerical Life. - 1858

Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons,, 1858. Her first book, an unrestored copy in the original cloth First edition in book form of George Eliot's first published work of fiction, collecting three short stories previously serialized in Blackwood's Magazine from January to November 1857. Sadleir, writing in 1951, remarks that the book "in any state is now rare", and ranks it as the scarcest of Eliot's novels to find in the original cloth. These tales, centering around three provincial clergymen, focus less on theological issues than on the ethical problems they face in their daily lives, foreshadowing many of the themes addressed in Eliot's later masterpiece Middlemarch (1871-2). The stories, "with their deft contextualizing and strong dialogue, indicated the arrival of a fresh new talent among Victorian writers of fiction" (ODNB). Eliot began to write the first story in September 1856 and, two months later, G. H. Lewes submitted a manuscript to Blackwood noting it was the work of an "unnamed friend". The publisher accepted the work and, at the beginning of February 1857, the author identified herself as "George Eliot" but also acknowledged this was "a non de plume". The first book edition was published on 5 January 1858. Provenance: ownership inscriptions "J. Power Pemb: Coll:" on front free endpapers. This was likely John Power (1819-1880), a tutor at Pembroke College, Cambridge, between 1852 and 1870, and later appointed master. He was twice vice-chancellor of the University of Cambridge. Sadleir noted that Scenes of Clerical Life "had a success with a small intelligent public". Two volumes, octavo. Original claret morocco-grain cloth by Edmonds & Remnants, spine lettered in gilt and decorated in blind, foliate decoration on covers in blind, cinnamon-colour endpapers, binder's label on rear pastedown (Baker & Ross's "D" binding). Housed in a custom cloth solander box. Old bookseller's receipt loosely inserted. Spines just lightly sunned, extremities rubbed, corners bumped, hinges cracked but holding, occasional light mark to margins, otherwise generally clean. A very good, fresh copy. Baker & Ross A3.2 (1,050 copies); Parrish, p. 7, Sadleir, XIX Century Fiction, 818, Wolff 2062.