_George Eliot's Works_

Hello All,

I came across what appears to be a very old book, George Eliot's Works,
12mo, gray cloth (linen?) with black lettering & graphics, featuring a rose
in a circle. The title on the spine is in black letters, embossed on a gold
a (gilt) backround. The contents are listed on the spine, in black letters:
Theophratus Such; The Spanish Gypsy; Jubal and Other Poems.

The publisher is Hurst & Company, New York, and there is no publication
date. There are 210 pages including notes.

The pages have darkened and deteriorated somewhat, being rather brittle at
the edges. Apparently there is a good deal of acid in the paper. The acid
content of the paper may have prematurely aged the pages, making my
estimation of the age erroneous. I have found one other edition with
identical contents (bookfinder.com), but it is not published by Hurst &
Company. This other edition was published mid 1880's.

Is anyone familiar with this book?

TW

"Joe Smith" wrote in message
...
Hello All,

I came across what appears to be a very old book, George Eliot's Works,
12mo, gray cloth (linen?) with black lettering & graphics, featuring a
rose
in a circle. The title on the spine is in black letters, embossed on a gold
a (gilt) backround. The contents are listed on the spine, in black letters:
Theophrastus Such; The Spanish Gypsy; Jubal and Other Poems.

The publisher is Hurst & Company, New York, and there is no publication
date. There are 210 pages including notes.

The pages have darkened and deteriorated somewhat, being rather brittle at
the edges. Apparently there is a good deal of acid in the paper. The acid
content of the paper may have prematurely aged the pages, making my
estimation of the age erroneous. I have found one other edition with
identical contents (bookfinder.com), but it is not published by Hurst &
Company. This other edition was published mid 1880's.

Is anyone familiar with this book?

TW

Joe Smith wrote:

I came across what appears to be a very old book, George Eliot's Works,
12mo, gray cloth (linen?) with black lettering & graphics, featuring a
rose in a circle. The title on the spine is in black letters, embossed
on a gold a (gilt) backround. The contents are listed on the spine,
in black letters: Theophrastus Such; The Spanish Gypsy; Jubal and
Other Poems.

The publisher is Hurst & Company, New York, and there is no publication
date. There are 210 pages including notes.

This was an eight-volume set, and you have one volume (volume 8). There is a
complete set on ABE (http://dogbert.abebooks.com/abe/BookSearch), being
offered for $100. There are also numerous loose volumes being offered, and
you might be able to make up a set, if you so wish (though you might do
better to buy the $100 dollar set - which the seller says is in excellent
condition - and have done!). The contents of the volumes are as follows:

[v.1] Adam Bede. -- [v.2] Daniel Deronda. -- [v.3] Felix Holt, the
radical. -- [v.4] Middlemarch. -- [v.5] The mill on the floss. -- [v.6]
Romola. -- [v.7] Silas Marner. -- Scenes of clerical life. -- [v.8]
Impressions of Theophrastus Such. -- Jubal and other poems. -- The Spanish
gypsy.

Basically, this is a reprint edition, hence not worth very much, but it's
always nice to have a set like this and pick a volume down from the shelves
to read. It doesn't cost much more than a modern paperback edition (assuming
the paperback is bought new), and is far nicer to handle.

--
John
http://rarebooksinjapan.com

John A. Stovall wrote:

This is what World Cat coughed up:
[snip]
But World Cat only listed 3 Hurt & Company books with
George Eliot as author.

I sneaked into Worldcat through the back entrance (i.e., by making a
spurious entry on the ABE search prompt), and several entries came up. The
new interface actually makes it much *harder* to turn up copies. One can't
see at a glance how many copies there really are listed, and you have to
plough through the catalogue of each individual library (assuming the
library *has* an on-line catalogue available; many don't). The first two I
tried seemed to be duds; they led to quite a different publication (a work
of literary criticism, published just a few years ago). The third (Mohawk
Valley Community College) coughed up the information which I passed to the
OP.

--
John
http://rarebooksinjapan.com

wrote:

Basically, this is a reprint edition, hence not worth very much, but it's
always nice to have a set like this and pick a volume down from the shelves
to read. It doesn't cost much more than a modern paperback edition (assuming
the paperback is bought new), and is far nicer to handle.

Not if it's on brittle paper. I don't think it's worth *anything* if it's as
acidic as all that. There are plenty of better-printed editions of George Eliot
around.

--Helen

John A. Stovall wrote:

I have full access through the university here. My search was with
Publisher "Hurt and Company" AND Author "George Eliot" . Those
parameters only kicked out three with the one I posted.

That would explain the different results; I just entered "Hurst" as the
publisher.

--
John
http://rarebooksinjapan.com

H Schinske:

Not if it's on brittle paper. I don't think it's worth *anything* if
it's as acidic as all that. There are plenty of better-printed
editions of George Eliot around.

True enough, Helen. I didn't pay enough attention to what the OP said about
the condition of the books, and what I had in mind was the description of
the 8-volume set on ABE:

"Hurst and Co. 1887 - Brown, elaborately dec bords w/gilt on spine - slight
edge wear - some yellowing of edges and pages o/w near fine condition - 8
vol set - all as described above - beautiful set and difficult to find in
this condition."

I'm not sure (checking other records) whether that date shouldn't be shown
as [1887?], as other library catalogue entries show it. Still, if it's as
decent as it sounds, and if I was looking for a set of reading copies of her
works, I don't think $100 would be too much to pay. But the description
he

The pages have darkened and deteriorated somewhat, being rather
brittle at the edges.

sounds a lot less hopeful and you're right - a set in that condition would
scarcely be worth having.

--
John
http://rarebooksinjapan.com

John Yamamoto-Wilson wrote:

Joe Smith wrote:


I came across what appears to be a very old book, George Eliot's Works,
12mo, gray cloth (linen?) with black lettering & graphics, featuring a
rose in a circle. The title on the spine is in black letters, embossed
on a gold a (gilt) backround. The contents are listed on the spine,
in black letters: Theophrastus Such; The Spanish Gypsy; Jubal and
Other Poems.

The publisher is Hurst & Company, New York, and there is no publication
date. There are 210 pages including notes.


This was an eight-volume set, and you have one volume (volume 8). There is a
complete set on ABE (http://dogbert.abebooks.com/abe/BookSearch), being
offered for $100. There are also numerous loose volumes being offered, and
you might be able to make up a set, if you so wish (though you might do
better to buy the $100 dollar set - which the seller says is in excellent
condition - and have done!). The contents of the volumes are as follows:

[v.1] Adam Bede. -- [v.2] Daniel Deronda. -- [v.3] Felix Holt, the
radical. -- [v.4] Middlemarch. -- [v.5] The mill on the floss. -- [v.6]
Romola. -- [v.7] Silas Marner. -- Scenes of clerical life. -- [v.8]
Impressions of Theophrastus Such. -- Jubal and other poems. -- The Spanish
gypsy.

Basically, this is a reprint edition, hence not worth very much, but it's
always nice to have a set like this and pick a volume down from the shelves
to read. It doesn't cost much more than a modern paperback edition (assuming
the paperback is bought new), and is far nicer to handle.

No to mention that many of the works are not available in MMPB.

--
Evelyn C. Leeper
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper
We need to be creating a world that we would like to live in when
we're not the biggest power on the block. --Bill Clinton

John A. Stovall wrote:

By the way it was Hurst not Hurt. My typo...

Yeah, I just assumed that! But, of course, I was too polite to say so!

"don't send mail or post messages solely to point out other people's errors
in typing or spelling. These, more than any other behavior, mark you as an
immature beginner."
(http://www.cybernothing.org/cno/docs/rfc1855.html#3)


--
John
http://rarebooksinjapan.com