Roderick Hudson

London: Macmillan, 1879. First English edition of Henry James’s first novel, one of only 500 copies, significantly revised from the 1875 first American edition. A talented American sculptor working in Italy, Roderick Hudson finds himself distracted by his encounters with the “dangerous” Christina Light: “If beauty is immoral, as people think at Northampton, she is the incarnation of evil.” (Christina would reappear, restless as ever, as the heroine of James’s The Princess Casamassima a decade later.) Edel & Laurence A3b. The bibliographers record two variant binding states for this edition, with no priority established. Volumes I and III of this set represent the shorter variant; Volume II is slightly taller. A very good example of the novel that established James’s signature subject: the American abroad. Three octavo volumes: iv, 258, 38; ii, 278; ii, 264. Original dark blue fine-bead-grain cloth; double-ruled border and curved-edge panel in black on upper boards, repeated in blind on lower boards; gilt lettering and publisher’s device to spines with blind-stamped rules to spine ends; black coated endpapers. Publisher’s catalogue dated “May 1879” bound at rear of Volume I. Light shelfwear, spine gilt faded, expert repair to spine ends. Housed in a custom clamshell box. (Inventory #: 1003900)