Far from the Madding Crowd

This edition of Hardy's first masterpiece, the glorious tale of the beautiful, willful Bathsheba Everdene and her three suitors, reprints for the first time the illustrations by Helen Paterson that graced the novel's first appearance in print. Other illustrations include a page from Virginia Woolf's diary, describing a visit to Hardy at his home, Max Gate.

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The New York Public Library Collector's Editions

Favorite masterpieces of world literature illustrated by rare and beautiful materials from the Library's collections and featuring an elegant, distinctive design, with foil-trimmed covers with matching endpapers; compact, easy-to-hold size; and modern, readable type. Each book includes a biography of the author, a short essay about the images and artifacts from the Library used to illustrate the text, and suggestions for further reading.