Felix Holt: The Radical, In Two Volumes

1898 limited (copy 123/500) Holly Lodge Edition, Dana Estes and Co. (Boston, Massachusetts), two 6 1/8 x 8 3/8 inches tall green cloth hardcover volumes, no dust jackets, printed paper labels to spines, top page edges gilt, fore and bottom page edges untrimmed, printed on laid paper, illustrated with ten full-page engravings with tissue guards, 325, 333 pp. (658 pages total.) Very slight soiling, rubbing and edgewear to covers, with slight bumping to a couple of tips and moderate age toning to spines. Many unopened signatures (preferred by some collectors), easily remedied with a paper knife or edge of a playing card. Otherwise, a very good to near fine set - clean, bright and unmarked - in a handsome printing of this classic. Note that this is a heavy and oversized set, so additional postage will be required for international or priority orders. ~SSS~ [4.5P] A social novel by leading English Victorian author George Eliot, the pen name of Mary Ann Evans (1819-1880), about political disputes in a small English town at the time of the First Reform Act of 1832. the story centers on an election contested by Harold Transome, a local landowner, in the 'Radical cause' ('Radical' because Transome's version of 'radicalism' isn't radical at all, but rather an application of the term to his politically stagnant lifestyle), contrary to his family's Tory traditions. Contrasting with the opportunism of Transome is the sincere, but opinionated, Radical Felix Holt. A subplot concerns the stepdaughter of a Dissenting minister who is the true heir to the Transome estate, but who is unaware of the fact. She becomes the object of the affections of both Harold Transome and Felix Holt.…