Owen Glendower; or, The Prince in Wales

London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street, 1849. First Edition. 2 vols., 8vo (208 x 132mm), pp. vi, 304; [2], 301, [1]. Publisher’s light russet cloth with decorative designs blocked in blind, gilt spines, printed publisher’s catalog on glazed-paper endpapers. Rubbing and soft bumps to the extremities, bookseller's ticket on the back pastedowns, else a near fine, bright set. Historical romance centered on the last Welsh Prince of Wales, Owain Glyndwr. More than a conventional costume romance, Hardy's novel participates in the nineteenth-century rediscovery of Welsh history, using the figure of Glynd r to combine historical fiction with antiquarian interest and an early form of cultural nationalism. It belongs not only to the Bentley historical romance tradition but to the broader literary afterlife of Glynd r as a symbol of Welsh resistance and identity.