The Fairy Mythology. Illustrative of the Romance and Superstition of Various Countries. By Thomas Keightley. London. George Bell & Sons. 1905. 560 Pages. Publisher's 32 page catalogue to rear. George Cruikshank Fronticepiece. 18.5 x 13 x 4.5 cm.
Book belonging to Florence Emily Dugdale, second wife of Thomas Hardy, published in 1905, the year they first met.
Florence Emily Dugdale was one of the five daughters of the schoolmaster Edward Dugdale, who ran a small bookshop in Enfield for a time and encouraged his daughter's early love of literature. She had been an admirer of Thomas Hardy's novels for some time before their first meeting in August 1905 (initiated by her), and after the visit she received an encouraging letter from Hardy: "...I do not think you stayed at all too long, & hope you will come again some other time...". "From the very first Hardy felt attracted to Miss Dugdale by her quiet seriousness, her large solemn eyes, her literary ambitions, and, not least, her open admiration of him as a great author". I presume that the book, along with Florence's other possessions, would have gone to 'Max Gate' after the couple were married and become a part of the library there.
Florence's bookplate is pasted to reverse of the front free endpaper and is in the Art Nouveau in style featuring a lady wearing a large bonnet carrying several books under her arm, possibly a portrait of Florence herself?
I can find no other examples of the bookplate but it appears to fit one described in Michael Millgate's book "Thomas Hardy’s Library at Max Gate: Catalogue of an Attempted Reconstruction".
Millgate states that Hardy himself did not have any bookplates printed or inserted but that "A large and somewhat romantically illustrated bookplate used by Florence Dugdale prior to her marriage is found in a very few volumes...".
In 2001, Sotheby's of London sold "Florence Hardy's personal copy of THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE, a later edition with her bookplate and not inscribed by Thomas Hardy", for £8,500.
Thomas Hardy's library at Max Gate contained a few fairy tale books. Fairy imagery became especially popular in the Victorian era and Hardy himself uses a fairy ring as a symbol of lost love in The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886); the character Michael Henchard passes a fairy ring and remembers that he last saw his wife Susan there when he sold her to a sailor in a drunken rage.
Florence Emily Dugdale (1879 – 1937) was a writer of children's stories and was born in Edmonton, London, the daughter of school headmaster Edward Dugdale. In 1897 she became a fully qualified teacher at St Andrew's (her father's school). She was also companion to Lady Stoker, wife of Sir Thornley Stoker, brother of Bram, author of Dracula. Florence first met Thomas Hardy in 1905 aged 26. She became his passionate friend and helper, and eventually stopped teaching in 1908 - both to assist Hardy and begin her writing career. In 1912 she published her first book - The Book of Baby Birds - with Hardy's contribution. In the same year, Hardy's wife Emma died, and she moved into Max Gate, Dorchester, Dorset, in 1913.
In 1914 they married at St Andrew's Church, Enfield, despite the 39 year age difference. During the marriage Florence found herself increasingly in the shadow of Emma (whom, ironically, Thomas had neglected whilst she was alive). Thomas's frantic and subdued love poetry - obviously written with Emma in mind - was a cause of embarrassment and misery for Florence. Nevertheless, in 1928, when Hardy finally died aged 87, she was so stricken with grief that a doctor was required. The Hardys befriended T. E. Lawrence, and Florence attended his funeral. Florence Hardy died at Max Gate, the home she had shared with Thomas, of cancer, aged 58. She was cremated in Woking Crematorium, and her ashes were buried in Stinsford churchyard, where Hardy's heart and his first wife were interred.
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Boards are a little marked and rubbed, else fine. Binding is very firm. Contents are very clean and complete with no loose or missing pages. Remnants of tissue guard to gutter of title page. Slight 'cracking' between pages 384/5. Lower right corner missing to pages 9 & 11 of publisher's 32 page catalogue to rear. Some wear and rubbing to cloth with fading to spine lettering. Light foxing to endpapers & text block. Binding sound and contents clean & complete.
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Thomas Hardy (1840 – 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry of William Wordsworth. He was highly critical of much in Victorian society, especially on the declining status of rural people in Britain, such as those from his native South West England.
While Hardy wrote poetry throughout his life and regarded himself primarily as a poet, his first collection was not published until 1898. Initially, he gained fame as the author of novels such as Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891), and Jude the Obscure (1895). During his lifetime, Hardy's poetry was acclaimed by younger poets (particularly the Georgians) who viewed him as a mentor. After his death his poems were lauded by Ezra Pound, W. H. Auden and Philip Larkin.
any of his novels concern tragic characters struggling against their passions and social circumstances, and they are often set in the semi-fictional region of Wessex; initially based on the medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom, Hardy's Wessex eventually came to include the counties of Dorset, Wiltshire, Somerset, Devon, Hampshire and much of Berkshire, in southwest and south central England. Two of his novels, Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Far from the Madding Crowd.
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Thomas Keightley (1789 – 1872) was an Irish writer known for his works on mythology and folklore, particularly Fairy Mythology (1828), reprinted as The World Guide to Gnomes, Fairies, Elves, and Other Little People (1880, 1978, 2000, etc.).
Regarded as a pioneer in the study of Folklore by modern scholars in the field, he was one of the "early and important comparativist collectors" of folklore. A circumspect scholar, he did not deem that similar tales recognizable across countries automatically signified transmission, but allowed that similar tales could arise independently in different cultures.
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