Hardy (Thomas) - Jude the Obscure.

Jude the Obscure, by Thomas Hardy. First edition in bookform, Purdy's first state, 8vo, pp.viii,516, map, Osgood, McIlvaine & Co., London, 1896 [but 1895].

Etched frontispiece by H. MacBeth-Raeburn, full-page map of Hardy's 'Wessex' at end, occasional marginal light foxing, endpapers foxed, original dark green grained cloth, gilt, some fading and staining, cocked, gold top. Book label and ownership signature of Gregory Drew.

[Purdy p.86-87] The Christminster of the novel is modelled on Oxford and Tetuphenay on Benjamin Jowett, Master of Balliol. Provenance: Gregory Drew graduate of Worcester College, Oxford, later a cataloguer of the Taylorian Library.