"HE WAS LIKE A MAGICIAN TO ME… HE COULD MOVE ME AS A LOADSTONE MOVES A SPECK OF STEEL": THOMAS HARDY'S A CHANGED MAN, 1913 FIRST EDITION, IN VERY SCARCE ORIGINAL DUST JACKET

HARDY, Thomas. A Changed Man, The Waiting Supper, and Other Tales, Concluding with The Romantic Adventures of a Milkmaid. London: Macmillan, 1913. Octavo, original dark green cloth, top edge gilt, original dust jacket. Housed in a custom cloth chemise and slipcase. $2500.

First edition of this collection of a dozen of Hardy's short stories, including his lengthy gothic tale "The Romantic Adventures of a Milkmaid," with photogravure frontispiece, in very scarce original dust jacket.

"A Changed Man is a group of 'a dozen minor novels' that had lain uncollected in English and American periodicals, half of them for a quarter of a century or more. They 'would probably have never been collected by me at this time of day,' Hardy wrote, 'if frequent reprints of some of them in America and elsewhere had not set many readers inquiring for them in a volume'… There is much of interest in the volume: the introduction of soldiers and the use of historical setting in the tales written in the '90s, when The Dynasts was taking shape; the snatches of reminiscence and family tradition in 'A Tryst at an Ancient Earthwork' and 'The Duke's Reappearance'; the reflection in 'Alicia's Diary' of Hardy's Italian journey a few months before…" (Purdy, 155-56). One of 10,000 copies; the 12 stories here collected had all been published previously in periodicals. Purdy, 151-57. Webb, 39-40. Old bookseller description tipped to front free endpaper.

Book fine, very scarce and fragile original dust jacket with light edge-wear and gently toned spine, extremely good.