3 volumes, 8vo. Half-titles; frontispiece sketch map by Hardy; 2pp. advertisements in vol. II. Original brown cloth [Purdy's primary binding] decorated in black and blind, spine gilt-lettered (recased with new endpapers and repairs to spine ends, modest evidence of former library labels on upper covers).

FIRST EDITION IN BOOK FORM, FIRST ISSUE without the single quotation mark after "A Pair of Blue Eyes" on the title-page of the first volume. The Return of the Native was first published as a serial in Belgravia from January to December 1878. The first edition in book form of 1,000 copies incorporated several new chapter titles as well as other deletions and additions to the text. Purdy pp. 24-27; Sadleir 1113a; Wolff 2989.