We bring you volume four of our brilliant first published books series. These classic authors debuted the below books before launching a fantastic novel later that just took off. So here are another group of our favourites here from World of Rare Books.
George Eliot – Adam Bede (1859)
Adam Bede was the first novel published by George Eliot (the pen name of Mary Ann Evans) in 1859. She used a male pen name to ensure that her works would be taken seriously. There were women who were published under their own names during Eliot’s life, but she wanted to escape the stereotype of women writing only light-hearted romances. George Eliot’s Middlemarch (a later novel) has been described as the greatest novel in the English Language.
“Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds.”
― George Eliot, Adam Bede
D.H. Lawrence – The White Peacock (1911)
The White Peacock is the first published novel by D.H.Lawrence, it was published in 1911. Lawrence began the novel in 1906 and then rewrote it three times. Earlier versions had the title Laetitia. This novel is set in a fictional town called Nevermere and is narrated by Cyril Beardsall, whose sister Lettie is involved in a love triangle with two men. George and Leslie Temple. The book features themes such as the damage associated with mismatched marriages.
“Be a good animal, true to your instincts.”
― D.H. Lawrence, The White Peacock
James Joyce – Dubliners (1914)
James Joyce first published Dubliner in 1914, it is a collection of fifteen short stories. They form a naturalistic look of the Irish middle-class life in and around Dublin in the early years of the 20th century. The stories were written when Irish nationalism was at its peak. They centre on Joyce’s idea of an epiphany. Many of the characters that feature in this book later appear in minor roles in Ulysses.
“One by one they were all becoming shades. Better pass boldly into that other world, in the full glory of some passion, than fade and wither dismally with age.”
― James Joyce, Dubliners
Daphne Du Maurier – The Loving Spirit – (1931)
The Loving Spirit was Daphne Du Maurier’s first published novel, published in 1931 the book takes its name from a poem written by Emily Brontë. Daphne Du Maurier began work on this book in 1929.
The book is based on real events and places, but the names have been changed. Polruan became Plyn and the Slade family became the Coombe family. With the success of this book, Daphne Du Maurier went on to write Rebecca, Jamaica Inn and My Cousin Rachel. All books she is became a household name in classic fiction for.
“Dust unto dust. There was no reason then for life—it was only a fraction of a moment between birth and death, a movement upon the surface of water, and then it was still. Janet had loved and suffered, she had known beauty and pain, and now she was finished—blotted by the heedless earth, to be no more than a few dull letters on a stone. Joseph”
― Daphne du Maurier, The Loving Spirit
Scott Fitzgerald – This Side of Paradise (1920)
The debut novel from F. Scott Fitzgerald, published in 1920 and taking its name from a line of Rupert Brooke’s poem Tiare Tahiti, the story focuses on the lives and morality of post-World War I youth. The novel famously helped F. Scott Fitzgerald gain Zelda Sayre’s hand in marriage due to its success. Fitzgerald didn’t earn much from the sales of this book, however, it did aid him in earning much higher rates for his later short stories.
“I don’t want to repeat my innocence. I want the pleasure of losing it again.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise
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