The Well-Beloved

This is a genuine first edition, NOT a 'first thus' — although the text had appeared serially in 1892 as 'The Pursuit of the Well-Beloved' (Illustrated London News), it was considerably revised and had no prior book publication, so the 1897 Osgood, McIlvaine volume is the first book edition. It is one of three true first editions issued within the Osgood, McIlvaine Wessex Novels series (with Jude the Obscure and A Changed Man). The London edition precedes the American first (Harper & Brothers, New York, 1897).