English Literature

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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. WYCHERLEY, William.

    The Posthumous Works … in Prose and Verse. Faithfully publish’d from his original Manuscripts, by Mr. Theobald....

    London: Printed for A. Bettesworth, J. Osborn, W. Mears, W. and J. Innys, J. Peele, T. Woodward; and F. Clay. 1728.

    First edition of an important collection, comprising 308 maxims, one short essay and a large number of previously unpublished poems (the third paginated sequence), based on manuscripts acquired from Captain Thomas Shrimpton, Wycherley’s sole executor.

    £850

  2. XENOPHON.

    De Cyri regis Persarum vita atque disciplina, libri VIII.

    Paris, Andreas Wechel, 1572.

    First edition of Joachim Camerarius’ Latin translation of Xenophon’s Cyropaedia, a partly fictional work on the life and education of Cyrus the Great which served as a model for medieval and renaissance mirrors of princes, including Machiavelli’s Il Principe. A beautiful...

    £875

  3. YEATS, William Butler.

    The Poems …

    London, Macmillan and Co. Ltd, 1949.

    No. 191 of 375 copies, signed, of which 25 were for private distribution. At the time of publication this was the definitive collected edition of Yeats’s poetry. Yeats had prepared the proofs and signed the limitation leaves before his death in 1939, but final publication was delayed by the war.

    £2750

  4. [YOUNG, Edward.] 

    The Complaint: or, Night-Thoughts on Life, Death, & Immortality [Nights First to Fourth] … 

    London: Printed for R. Dodsley … and sold by M. Cooper … 1743. 

    Second (first quarto) edition of Night the First, first editions of Night the Second and Fourth, second edition of Night the Third

    £250

  5. YRVEN, Marcelle. 

    La comédienne et le féminisme. 

    Paris, L. Pichon, 1914. 

    First edition of this feminist work on the necessity of a thorough literary and cultural education for women in theatre, by the celebrated actress Marcelle Yrven, presented to the editor-in-chief of Le Figaro’s literary supplement. 

    £250

  6. ZANCHI, Basilio.

    Dictionarium poeticum, et epitheta veterum poetarum … nunc secondo trans Alpes editum.

    Mons, Luca Rivius, 1612.

    Scarce Mons-printed edition of Zanchi’s classical onomasticon from A to Z, providing a comprehensive list of deities, notable figures, and locations from the works of Virgil, Horace, Tibullus, Ovid, and Propertius.

    £375

  7. ZAPPI, Giambattista and Faustina.

    Rime di Giambattista Felice Zappi e di Faustina Maratti sua consorte.

    Nice, Società Tipog. 1781.

    Uncommon Nice printing of the collected poetry of one of the most prominent literary couples of early 18th century Rome, Faustina Maratti (1679–1745) and her husband Giambattista Zappi (1667–1719). First published after Zappi’s death in 1723, the collection consists of 73 poems by Zappi and 38...

    £200

  8. ZUKOFSKY, Louis.

    Some Time. Short Poems …

    Stuttgart, Jonathan Williams, 1956.

    First edition, one of 300 copies, inscribed ‘for D. G. Bridson, Sept. 21, 1957, Louis Zukofsky’.

    £500