English Literature

Contact Donovan Rees

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.

  1. [ACCADEMIA DELL’ARCADIA.]

    Favola di due gatti e della scimia coll’...

    Florence, Bernardo Paperini, 1730.

    First complete edition. A rare fable in...

    £550

  2. AIKEN, Conrad.

    Thee.

    New York, George Braziller, 1967.

    First trade edition, inscribed ‘For...

    £250

  3. AIKEN, Conrad.

    Selected Poems.

    New York, Oxford University Press, 1964.

    Second printing (first 1961), inscribed:...

    £150

  4. AINSWORTH, William Harrison.

    The Combat of the Thirty. From a Breton...

    London: Chapman and Hall … 1859

    First edition of the first English translations...

    £550

  5. ALBERTI, Leon Battista.

    El Momo. La moral e muy graciosa historia...

    Alcalá de Henares, Joan Mey Flandro, 1553.

    First edition in Spanish of Alberti’s...

    £3800

  6. ALBERT, Sidney P.

    ‘Shaw’s Advice to the Players of Major...

    Reprinted from Modern Drama, XIV, 2 (1791).

    £20

  7. ALDINGTON, Richard.

    All Men are Enemies, a Romance.

    London, Chatto & Windus, 1933.

    First trade edition, inscribed ‘For...

    £200

  8. ALEKSANDROVA, Zinaida and Dmitry GORLOV.

    Мишкины соседи [Little...

    Moscow, VLKSM Izdatelstvo Detskoi Literaturi,...

    First edition. A very nice copy...

    £350

  9. ALFIERI, Vittorio. LLOYD, Charles, translator.

    The Tragedies of Vittorio Alfieri; translated...

    London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees,...

    First edition of this translation, which...

    £450

  10. [ALMANAC.]

    Le Parnasse des dames.

    Paris, Janet, [1814].

    An attractive copy of Janet’s Parnasse...

    £325

  11. [ALMANAC.] 

    Almanacco delle Dame. 

    Florence, F. Canale, [1883]. 

    A lavishly decorated – and seemingly...

    £275

  12. ALMEIDA, Theodoro de.

    Lisboa destruida poema, author o P. Theodoro...

    Lisbon, Antonio Rodrigues Galhardo, 1803.

    First edition of this poem in six cantos,...

    £300

  13. ARISTOPHANES.

    The Birds … Translated by the Rev. Henry...

    London: Printed for Taylor and Hessey …...

    First edition. ‘Given how much...

    £350

  14. [ARIZZI, Francesco.]

    Il buffone di nuova invenzione in Italia....

    Venice, Antonio Bortoli, 1740.

    First and only edition of Arizzi’s adaptation...

    £350

  15. ARNOLD, Edwin.

    Enfin: A Poem, hitherto unpublished, by...

    New York, printed by Thomas Perry Stricker...

    First edition, one of only fifty copies...

    £350

  16. A[RNOLD, Matthew].

    The Strayed Reveller, and other Poems. By A.

    London: B. Fellowes …1849

    First edition of Arnold’s first book,...

    £600

  17. ASTLEY, Philip.

    Astley’s System of equestrian Education,...

    London, T. Burton for S. Creed, [c. 1801].

    Fifth edition of a work on horse-training...

    £350

  18. AUDEN, W.H. Collected poems.

    Edited by Edward Mendelson.

    London, Faber and Faber, 1976.

    First edition. Denis Healey’s copy, with...

    £75

  19. [AUGUSTINE, Saint, attributed author.]

    The Meditations of Saint Augustine, from...

    Dublin: Printed for the Author, by H. Fitzpatrick...

    First edition of this rare translation...

    £1250

  20. [BAGE, Robert].

    Hermsprong; or, Man as he is not. A Novel...

    London: Printed for William Lane, at the...

    First edition of Bage’s last and finest novel.

    £2400