English Literature
Contact Donovan Rees or Zach Larsen
British literature and history from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, with an emphasis on poetry, fiction, and drama.
We usually have a selection of literary works from the STC and Wing period (i.e. before 1701), and a broad range of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century fiction and poetry, particularly the Romantics. We also have a selection of historical manuscripts, prints and broadsides, and works in translation.
Among important works which have passed through our hands are the editor's presentation copy of Milton's Lycidas, Swift's Modest Proposal, the autograph draft of Byron's She walks in beauty, the autograph manuscript of Jane Austen's only play Sir Charles Grandison, Dickens’s copy of Vanity Fair, Trollope's classical library, and, over the years, some fifty Shakespeare First Folios.
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KOTZEBUE, August Friedrich Ferdinand von.
The Constant Lover, or William and Jeanette: a Tale, from the German … To which is...
London, John Bell, 1799.
First edition in English, rare, of ‘Geprüfte Liebe’, a romance first published in Kotzebue’s Die jüngsten Kinder meiner Laune (1793–7), and then published separately in 1799, prefaced here by a summary translation of his literary autobiography.
£1600
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KOTZEBUE, August Friedrich Ferdinand von.
The Guardian Angel. From the German … A Story for Youth.
London, J. Wright for Vernor and Hood, and J. Harris, 1802.
First edition in English (and the first separate edition in any language?) of Kotzebue’s novella ‘Der Schutzgeist’, not his later play of that title, but a short story published in Gottlieb Wilhelm Becker’s Erholungen (Recreations) in 1797, where Kotzebue claimed it was a based...
£650
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LEIGH, Samuel Egerton, Sir.
Munster Abbey, a Romance; interspersed with Reflections on Virtue and Morality … in three...
Edinburgh, Printed by John Moir … for W. Creech, Cross, and S. Cheyne … [and] for Hookham & Carpentar … Vernor & Hood … London, 1797.
First edition. Despite its ‘gothic’ title this is a novel of contemporary high life in England and on the Grand Tour, avoiding ‘extravagant descriptions of supernatural scenes and events’. Munster Abbey in Devon is the seat of the hero, Mr. Belford, a bachelor ‘happily possessed of...
£1250
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LE SAGE, Alain René.
The History of Vanillo Gonzales, surnamed the merry Batchelor. In two Volumes. From the French …
London: Printed for G. G. and J. Robinson … 1797
First complete translation of Le Sage’s Histoire d’Estevanille Gonzalez, surnommé le garcon de bonne humeur (1734), itself a loose French adaptation of Vida y hechos de Estebanillo Gonzalez (1646), preserving only a few episodes of the Spanish original. Authorship of Vida y hechos...
£1250
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LEWIS, Wyndham.
Tarr.
London, The Egoist Ltd., 1918.
First English edition, published in an edition of 1000 (of which 87 distributed gratis). T. S. Eliot thought the book ‘remarkable’. Set in pre-war Paris, Tarr pits its eponymous English artist (‘a caricatural self-portrait of sorts’) against Kreisler, a self-destructive German...
£300
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LEWIS, Wyndham.
The Wild Body.
London, Chatto & Windus, 1927.
First trade edition, first issue binding; there was also a special edition of 85 signed copies. A collection, in a much reworked form, of some early sketches written in Brittany, some of which had been published in 1909.
£250
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LEWIS, Wyndham.
Snooty Baronet.
London, Cassell & Co. Ltd., 1932.
First edition, first issue binding, the first of three books Lewis published with Cassell, and the first of his novels not to find an American publisher.
£400
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LEWIS, Wyndham.
The Revenge for Love.
London, Cassell & Co. Ltd., [1937].
First edition, very scarce in the dust-jacket, of ‘one of Lewis’s finest novels … a brilliant novel of character’ (Bridson, The Filibuster), set in pre-Civil War Spain and centred on an incident of Communist gun-running on the border. ‘Here for once, Communism is accepted as a...
£1250
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LEWIS, Wyndham.
Rotting Hill …
London, Methuen & Co. Ltd., [1951].
First edition, inscribed ‘To Geoffrey / Benedictions / Wyndham Lewis’. Rotting Hill was a collection of stories, ‘no more political than “some of Charles Dickens’ books, and all by Mr. Shaw”’ (Bridson, The Filibuster), in that ‘today our lives are saturated by’ politics....
£750
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LEWIS, Wyndham.
Unlucky for Pringle. Unpublished and other Stories … Edited and introduced by C. J. Fox and Robert Chapman.
[London,] Vision, [1973].
First edition, inscribed by the editor ‘To Geoffrey and Joyce Bridson with warmest good wishes Cy Fox’. Seven of the fifteen stories were first published here. Fox’s postcard thanks Bridson for a letter ‘which was terrifically gratifying – especially from one who did so much to get the...
£100
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LEWIS, Wyndham.
The Roaring Queen. Edited and introduced by Walter Allen.
London, Secker & Warburg, [1973].
Limited edition, no XXVII of XXX copies not for sale, signed by Mrs Wyndham Lewis, Michael Ayrton & Walter Allen, with a signed etching by Michael Ayrton. A further 100 numbered copies were for general sale at £30 each.
£500
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LEWIS, Wyndham.
The Human Age. Book Two, Monstre Gai. Book Three, Malign Fiesta. Illustrations by Michael Ayrton.
London, Methuen & Co. Ltd., [1955].
First edition, inscribed ‘To Geoffrey Bridson – you who did so much to make the completion of this book possible, and who was chiefly responsible for its translation into Radio drama – I salute you. / Wyndham Lewis’.
£1750
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LEWIS, Wyndham.
The Childermass … Section 1.
London, Chatto & Windus, 1928.
First edition, no. 74 of 225 copies of the special edition, signed by Lewis, additionally inscribed, in c. 1951, ‘To Geoffrey Bridson (through whom I am enabled to finish this book) – deepest thanks and friendliest greetings / Wyndham Lewis’.
£2500
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LEWIS, Wyndham.
The Red Priest.
London, Methuen & Co. Ltd, 1956.
First edition, the last book published before Lewis’s death in March 1957. Bridson and Lewis had corresponded about a possible radio adaptation but Bridson had concluded it was over-episodic and would not translate well (letter of 6 March 1951).
£150
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LEWIS, Wyndham.
Mrs Dukes’ Million.
Toronto, The Coach House Press, 1977.
First edition, Lewis’s first novel, written in 1908-10 but never before published.
£75
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LEWIS, Wyndham.
A Soldier of Humour and selected Writings. Edited with an introduction by Raymond Rosenthal.
New York & Toronto, A Signet Classic, 1966.
First edition, inscribed by the editor: ‘Geoffrey I thought you would be interested in this new anthology’.
£75
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LEWIS, Wyndham.
The Roaring Queen. Edited and introduced by Walter Allen.
London, Secker & Warburg, [1973].
Second (but first published) edition, regular copy.
£50
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LUCIAN, of Samosata.
Deorum dialogi... una cum interpretatione e regione latina nusquam antea impressi...
Strassbourg, Johannes Schott, 1515.
First edition edited and translated by the German humanist (and musician) Ottmar Nachtgall.
£2100
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MADDEN, Dodgson Hamilton.
The Diary of Master William Silence: A Study of Shakespeare & of Elizabethan Sport.
London, New York, & Bombay, Longmans, Green, & Co., 1897.
First edition of Madden’s reimagination of Elizabethan sport, derived from passages from Shakespeare. Though a legal writer and prominent jurist, being appointed attorney-general of Ireland in 1889, the best known publication of Dodgson Hamilton Madden (1840–1928) remains the Diary of Master...
£120
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MANLEY, Delarivier.
The Power of Love: in seven Novels viz. I. The fair Hypocrite. II. The Physician’s Stratagem. III. The...
London, Printed for John Barber … and John Morphew … 1720.
First edition, apparently a presentation copy, of Delarivier Manley’s last work of prose, a collection of seven amorous novellas partly derived from William Painter’s Palace of Pleasure (1566), ‘adding divers new Incidents’, and supplemented by several original compositions.
£2500