ELIOT (George).
Middlemarch, a Study of Provincial Life.
The first continental edition of the English text (same year as the first edition); a German translation also appeared in 1872-3. After providing Tauchnitz with six books from 1857 to 1867 for his “Collection of British Authors,” George Eliot was enticed by Asher to inaugurate his rival “Collection of English Authors, British and American” with Middlemarch. Over the first two years of the series there were many defections from Tauchnitz, among them Wilkie Collins, Ouida, M. E. Braddon, Rhoda Broughton, Florence Marryat, Margaret Oliphant and Trollope. Further raids were prevented by an additional provision in London publishers’ contracts barring them from selling publication rights in Germany to anyone other than Tauchnitz, and most authors eventually renewed their affiliation.
A decent set, book labels of Robert E. Gilman to front pastedowns of each volume, contents otherwise generally clean with only a few instances of minor spotting and occasional pencilled marginal highlighting, spines faded and chipped at ends.
See: Todd and Bowden, Tauchnitz International Editions, p. 193.
