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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KIPLING, Rudyard.
A Kipling Note Book, No. 2.
New York, M.F. Mansfield & A. Wessels, 1899.
Contains notes on Kipling’s early works, and suppressed editions, and extracts from prefaces to a number of his works. The supplements comprise copies of the cover illustrations for Kipling’s earliest works, as published by the Indian Railway Library.
£25
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KIPLING, Rudyard.
The Horse Marines.
Garden City New York, Doubleday, Page & Company, Inc., 1910.
This story is based on a fictitious parliamentary report that army recruits were being trained to ride horses using rocking horses. It is the sixth instalment of the Pyecroft series.
£85
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KIRAM, Zeki Hasmet.
Vocabularium anatomiae latine-turcice. [Qamūs te šrih lātīnğe-türkğe].
Berlin, Morgen- und Abendland-Verlag, 1923.
First edition of a comprehensive glossary of anatomical terms in Latin with corresponding translation in Ottoman Turkish, intended for medical students among the increasingly large Turkish community in Germany, by the Syrian Ottoman officer turned Berlin publicist, arms dealer, and Muslim activist...
£375
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KIRAM, Zeki Hasmet.
Vocabularium anatomiae latine-arabice. [Qāmūs al-ta¬šrīḥ Lātīnī-‘Arabī].
Berlin, Morgen- und Abendland-Verlag, 1923.
First edition of an uncommon glossary of anatomical terms in Latin with corresponding translation in Arabic, intended for Arabic-speaking medical students studying in European universities, by army officer turned Berlin publicist, arms dealer, and Muslim activist Zeki Kiram (1886–1946).
£375
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K[IRKE], J[ohn].
The Seven Champions of Christendome. Acted at the Cocke-pit, and at the Red-Bull in St. Johns Streete, with a...
London, J. Okes, and are to be sold by James Becket, 1638.
First edition of this play based on Richard Johnson’s popular romance of 1596, characteristic of the spectacle-dramas staged at the Red Bull, where John Kirke was an actor.
£6500
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KRASNOV, Petr Nikolaevich.
Mantyk, okhotnik na l’vov. Povest’ [Mantyk, lion-hunter. A story].
Paris, V. Siial’skii, 1928.
First edition, an African safari adventure for younger readers, by the exiled ataman of the Don Cossacks.
£1200
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KRASNOV, Petr Nikolaevich.
S Ermakom na Sibir! Povest’ [With Ermak to Siberia! A story].
Paris, V. Siial’skii, [1929].
First edition, an illustrated children’s story about the sixteenth-century Cossack leader Ermak Timofeevich, whose exploration of Siberia in the 1580s marked the beginning of Russia’s expansion into the interior.
£1000
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[LABOURS OF THE MONTHS &c.]
Januarius. Februarius. Merz. April …
Nuremberg, Joh. Andreae Endterische Handlung, [second half of eighteenth century].
A scarce popular print depicting the labours of the months and signs of the zodiac, four continents, the four classical elements, and the four seasons.
£475
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LACTANTIUS.
Opera.
[Venice,] Vindelinus de Spira, 1472.
Magnificent incunable edition of the works of Lactantius, a fine product of the first Venetian press, established in 1469 by Johannes de Spira and continued by his brother Vindelinus from 1470 until 1473. This was the fifth impression of the works of Lactantius, the hugely successful North African...
£25000
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[LAFONT, Joseph de.]
Hypermnestre, tragedie, mise au theatre de l’Academie Royale de Musique de Lyon, pour la prémière fois...
Lyon, de l’imprimerie d’Aymé Delaroche ... aux dépens de l’Académie Royale de Musique, 1742.
Very scarce Lyon edition of the libretto for the tragedy Hypermnestre by the French playwright Joseph de Lafont (1686-1725). First performed in 1716, with music by Charles-Hubert Gervais, the play was initially criticised for its fifth act, but after rewriting by abbé Simon-Joseph Pellegrin enjoyed...
£175
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LAING, Alexander.
The True Hero and Other Poems …
Glasgow, Morison Brothers, 1893.
First edition, scarce, a presentation copy, inscribed in a shaky hand ‘To Wm J. Robertson / with author’s regards / Alex Laing / 8-4-19’.
£375
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LAMB, Charles.
John Woodvil a Tragedy ... to which are added, Fragments of Burton, the Author of the Anatomy of Melancholy.
London: Printed by T. Plummer ... for G. and J. Robinson ... 1802.
First edition. John Woodvil was Charles Lamb’s first play (or dramatic poem), regarded by him at one time as his ‘finest effort’, a ‘medley (as I intend it to be a medley) of laughter and tears, prose and verse, and in some places rhyme, songs, wit, pathos, humour, and, if possible, sublimity’...
£1250
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LANCINA, Juan Alfonso Rodríguez de.
Historia de las reboluciones del Senado de Messina, que ofrece al sacro, Catolico, real nombre...
Madrid, Por Julian de Paredes, impressor de libros, en la Plaçuela del Angel, 1692.
First and only edition of this rare account of the anti-Spanish revolt of Messina, in Sicily, which broke out in 1674 and lasted until 1678, by Juan Alfonso Rodríguez de Lancina (c. 1649–1703). Lancina, a judge of the Grand Court of the Vicaria, the highest criminal court of the Kingdom of...
£2500
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[LANDOR, Walter Savage].
Count Julian: a Tragedy.
London: Printed for John Murray … by James Moyes … 1812.
First edition of Landor’s first play, unacted, but a succès d’éstime, published in ‘a small edition’ (Oxford DNB). The episode in Spanish history which it treats – the vengeance taken by Don Julián, 8th-century ruler of Ceuta, against Roderigo, King of the Goths, who has dishonoured...
£450
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[LANGHORNE, John].
Letters supposed to have passed between M. de St. Evremond and Mr. Waller. Now first collected and published....
London: Printed in the Year, 1770.
Unacknowledged second edition; first published in two volumes in 1769. These supposed letters between the poet Edmund Waller and his contemporary, the French essayist Saint-Evremond are in fact by the poet and translator John Langhorne; they range widely over literary matters, including anecdotes about...
£175
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LA ROCHEFOUCAULD, François, Duc de.
The Memoirs of the Duke de La Rochefoucault. Containing the private Intrigues for obtaining...
London, Printed for James Partridge … 1683.
First edition in English, translated from Mémoires de M. D.L.R. sur les brigues à la mort de Louys XIII (1662). At court in his earlier years La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) took an active part in the cabals and rivalries that surrounded Richelieu and Louis XIII, and subsequently in the Fronde...
£650
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[LAWRENCE, George Alfred].
Barren Honour. A Tale. By the Author of ‘Guy Livingstone.’ In two Volumes ...
London: Parker, Son, and Bourn ... 1862.
First edition. Lawrence has been grouped with Kingsley and Hughes in the ‘muscular’ school of Victorian fiction with its sturdy heroes and Christian Socialism. Barren Honour is ‘a study of magnificently chivalrous self-destruction’ on the part of its hero Sir Alan Wyverne, ‘a thoroughbred’...
£350
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LAWRENCE, James Henry.
A Picture of Verdun, or the English Detained in France … from the Portfolio of a Detenu.
London, T. Hookham junior & E.T. Hookham, 1810.
First edition of this remarkable account of life among the British prisoners in Napoleonic Verdun, following the mass arrest of English residents in and visitors to France.
£600
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LAWRENCE, Thomas Edward.
Revolt in the Desert.
London: Jonathon Cape, 1927.
First edition of Lawrence’s popularly successful abridgement of Seven Pillars of Wisdom.
£275
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LEE, Henry.
[Cover title:] The White Whale …
London, R. K. Burt & Co. … 1878.
First edition, an account of the white Beluga whale by Henry Lee of the Royal Aquarium in Brighton, specifically of the first such whale successfully transported to England, exhibited for four days in 1877 before its death from pneumonia; and of four further whales transported the following year....
£225