By the time the final Cheap Edition of 1874 was published, it was obvious that Middlemarch was a complete commercial success for Eliot. Before Blackwood published Book 1, Lewes wrote that he expected to sell 10,000 copies of the novel at what he took to be "a cheap rate" for the eight half-volumes (Haight 436). The first serialized edition actually sold about 5,000 copies at 5s per part, still profitable, though less so than Lewes had anticipated. The Libraries were upset at the new form of publication which forced them to buy more than the usual volumes, but public demand showed them the loss they would incur by a boycott. The next publication of Middlemarch after serialization was a four-volume bound edition, published in 1873, which sold for 21s. The public bought almost 3,000 more copies of this collection.