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.
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POUND, Ezra.
The Translations … with an Introduction by Hugh Kenner.
London, Faber & Faber, 1953.
First edition. Gallup A66.
£125
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POUND, Ezra.
The Classic Anthology defined by Confucius.
London, Faber & Faber, 1955.
First English edition, first printing, comprising sheets of the Harvard University Press edition (1954) with a cancel Faber title-page.
£175
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POUND, Ezra.
Section: Rock-Drill. 85-95 de los Cantares.
Milan, All’insegna del pesce d’oro [Scheiwiller], 1955.
First edition, No. 347 of 500 copies, inscribed on the front free endpaper ‘To Geoffrey, “in alta stima” from D. / 6. 7. 56.’, with Bridson’s note identifying this as the actor and producer Denis Goacher.
£450
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POUND, Ezra.
H. S. Mauberley, tradotto di Giovanni Giudici con tre disegni inedita di Jean Cocteau.
Milan, all’insegna del pesce d’oro [Scheiwiller], 1959.
First edition, no. 141 of 1000 copies, a parallel-text Italian translation of Pound’s modernist masterpiece Hugh Selwyn Mauberley (1920).
£100
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POUND, Ezra.
Thrones. 96-109 de los cantares.
Milan, All’insegna del pesce d’oro [Scheiwiller], 1959.
First edition, no. 10 of 300 copies, one of the early copies with a misprint in l.9 on p. 85, cancelled in manuscript by the publisher.
£650
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POUND, Ezra.
Selected Poems.
The New Classics Series. [New York, New Directions, 1949.]
First edition, inscribed in a characteristic mix of the formal and the faux-Cockney ‘Geoffrey Bridson certified + worthy owner hereof. / To which mi ’and [i.e. my hand]/ Ezra Pound / 9 A[ugust?] ’56’. The book was given to the BBC Broadcater D.G. Bridson on the occasion of his visit...
£2750
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POUND, Ezra.
Quia Pauper amavi.
London, The Egoist Ltd, [1919].
First edition, one of 500 ordinary copies (there were also 100 signed copies on handmade paper’, inscribed ‘Bridson’s copy / 11 Ap ’59 / Ezra Pound’. This work contained the first English publication of Cantos I–III, not printed in that order.
£1750
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POUND, Ezra, and Ernest FENELLOSA.
Introduzione ai Nô, con un drama in un atto di Motokiyo: Kagekiyo.
Milan, All’insegna del pesce d’oro [Scheiwiller], [1958].
Third edition, translations of Pound’s ‘Introduction’ and one play from Certain Noble Plays of Japan by his daughter Mary de Rachewiltz. This third edition added ‘Un intervallo di 40 anni’ by Pound, dated November 1958.
£30
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PRESENT FOR THE YOUNG (A).
London: Printed for The Religious Tract Society … and sold at their Depository … also by J. Nisbet...
[c. 1827]
First edition. A finely illustrated anthology of religious verse, contemplations, and prayers for children. Pieces include poems on the seasons and stories about a Welsh Shepherd, and ‘The Hill and the Valley’, all with heavily metaphorical content.
£175
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[PRIMER.]
Abbecedario per imparar facilmente a sillabicare, coll’aggiunta di varie orazioni ad uso delle scuole.
Turin, Giacinto Marietti, [c. 1840?].
A seemingly unrecorded Torino-printed primer, with a series of syllabised phrases on devotion and morality.
£400
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PRIOR, Matthew.
Poems on several Occasions.
London: Printed for Jacob Tonson … 1709.
First authorised edition, preceded by Curll’s pirated collection of 1707. In the preface Prior complains that in Curll’s edition poems by other authors have been misattributed to him and that some of his own poems are ‘transcribed … so imperfectly, that I hardly knew them to be mine’....
£400
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PYNCHON, Thomas.
Gravity’s Rainbow.
New York: The Viking Press, [1973].
First edition. ‘Gravity’s Rainbow is literally indescribable, a tortured cadenza of lurid imaginings and total recall that goes on longer than you can quite believe’, wrote critic Michael Wood on first publication of this, Pynchon’s magnum opus:
£900
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RADCLIFFE, Ann.
The Mysteries of Udolpho, a Romance; interspersed with some Pieces of Poetry ... in four Volumes ...
London: Printed for G. G. and J. Robinson ... 1794.
First edition of a cornerstone of gothic fiction, ‘a book so rich in Gothic ideas and techniques that its far-reaching influence can scarcely be overstated … Its wild and lush landscapes became ubiquitous too, in the imagination of contemporaries, and it is no surprise to find Keats, in 1818, writing...
£3500
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RAMSAY, Allan.
The Gentle Shepherd, a Scotch Pastoral … attempted in English by Margaret Turner.
London: Printed for the Author, by T. Bensley; and sold by G. Nicol … and by Mrs. Turner … 1790.
First edition of this parallel-text translation of Ramsay’s Scots verse drama, a subscriber’s copy from the library of Mary, Lady Vincent, née Chiswell, wife of Sir Francis Vincent (1747–1793), resident consul at Venice.
£600
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RAMUS, Petrus.
P. Rami ... Oratio de legatione.
Paris, Andreas Wechel, 1557.
First (?) edition: a fascinating pamphlet marking a critical epoch in the history of the University of Paris and the first occasion on which Ramus came into prominence as champion of his University and of higher education in general.
£800
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RAMUS, Petrus.
Harangue ... touchant ce qu'ont faict les deputez de l’Université de Paris envers le Roy. Mise de Latin en Francois.
Paris, Andreas Wechel, 1557.
First French-language edition of the above, issued simultaneously with the Latin text and presumably translated by Ramus himself. Apart from La Dialectique, this is one of Ramus’ very few works in the vernacular. Very rare.
£950
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RAWLET, John.
Poetick Miscellanies …
London, printed for Samuel Tidmarsh, 1687.
First edition. Writing from the isolation of Newcastle, then a rural parish in fell country, Rawlet developed a mode of religious and descriptive poetry distinctly out of step with his own age, as is acknowledged by the editor in a verse preface: ‘Reader, expect not here, the filth of th’...
£1100
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[REEVE, Gabriel].
Directions left by a Gentleman to his Sonns: for the Improvement of barren and heathy Land, in England and Wales.
London, Printed by E. T. and R. H. for R. Royston … 1670
Sole edition of one of the first books in English devoted to soil conservation. The dedication is signed Gabriel Reeve and dated from Hackney, 14 April 1670.
£650
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REMARKS ON FOG’S JOURNAL,
of February 10. 1752/3. Exciting the People to an Assassination.
London: Printed for J. Wilford …1733
First edition. In order to reduce the burden of the land tax on the country gentlemen upon whom his ministry depended, and to shift government revenues to other sources, Walpole revived the excise on salt and was considering substituting excise for customs duties on wine and tobacco. This led to alarms...
£150
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[RENNEVILLE, Sophie de (?).]
Contes a Aglaé, ou la jeune moraliste.
Paris, Caillou, c.1820.
Very uncommon edition, possibly the first, of this collection of educational contes moraux, sometimes attributed to the prolific children’s author and journalist Sophie de Renneville (1772–1822). Aimed at children of both sexes, the book contains sixteen short contes on subjects ranging...
£325