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. AYRTON, Michael.

    The Midas Consequence.

    London, Secker & Warburg, [1974].

    First edition.

    £75

  2. [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

  3. [BECKFORD, William.]

    Vathek, conte Arabe.

    Paris, Chez Poinçot ... 1787.

    First Paris edition of Beckford’s...

    £3250

  4. [BECKFORD, William, and Samuel HENLEY, translator.]

    An Arabian Tale, from an unpublished Manuscript....

    London, Printed for W. Clarke … 1809.

    Scarce second edition – in fact a...

    £1500

  5. [BERINGTON, Simon, adapted by Jean-Baptiste DUPUY-DEMPORTES.] 

    Memoires de Gaudence de Luques, prisonnier...

    Amsterdam and Leipzig, Arkstée & Merkus,...

    Second edition of this much expanded...

    £500

  6. BLANCHARD, Edward Litt Leman.

    A Pipe of Tobacco: with Whiffs and Clouds...

    London: H. Beal … [1840s?].

    First edition, by the editor and...

    £125

  7. BOUDIER DE VILLEMERT, Pierre-Joseph. 

    L’Andrometrie, ou examen philosophique...

    Paris, chez Brunet, 1753. 

    First editions of two scarce works by...

    £2500

  8. BROUGHAM, Henry, first Baron Brougham and Vaux.

    Albert Lunel. A Novel ... In three Volumes...

    Clarke ... [1872].

    First edition, Sadleir’s ‘really...

    £450

  9. BURROUGHS, William.

    The Naked Lunch.

    Paris, Olympia Press, [1960].

    First edition, second printing – the...

    £200

  10. [BURY, Lady Charlotte].

    The Exclusives. In three Volumes ...

    London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley...

    First edition of a society novel written...

    £950

  11. CARR, Lisle.

    Judith Gwynne …

    Henry S. King & Co. … London, 1873

    First edition, a scarce romance-cum-society...

    £200

  12. CRAWFORD, F. Marion.

    Saracinesca ... in three Volumes ...

    William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh...

    First edition. The prolific American novelist...

    £280

  13. DE BEAUVOIR, Simone.

    The Mandarins. A Novel …

    Cleveland and New York, The World Publishing...

    First edition in English, signed by De...

    £750

  14. DESENFANS, Noel Joseph.

    Les deux Hermites, dédié a mylord Lyttelton...

    A Londres; chez R. Davis … J Ridley...

    First and only edition, uncommon, of an...

    £650

  15. DESFORGES, Pierre Choudard.

    Tom Jones a Londres, Comédie en cinq actes...

    Paris, Chez Prault, Imprimeur du Roi … 1789.

    Later edition, first published 1782....

    £95

  16. DICKENS, Charles.

    Mäster Humphreys Klocka … Förra [–Sednare]...

    Stockholm, Hos. L. J. Hjerta, 1842.

    First edition in Swedish, very rare, of...

    £850

  17. DICKENS, Charles. 

    The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club...

    London, Chapman & Hall, 1837. 

    First edition, first issue.  The...

    £2000

  18. DICKENS, Charles.

    Mäster Humphreys Klocka … Förra [–Sednare]...

    Stockholm, Hos. L. J. Hjerta, 1842.

    First edition in Swedish, rare, of Master...

    £350

  19. DICKENS, Charles; Hablot Knight BROWNE and George CATTERMOLE, illustrators.

    Master Humphrey’s Clock.

    London, Chapman and Hall, 1840–41.

    First edition in book form, of Charles...

    £175

  20. D’ISRAELI, Isaac.

    Romances …

    London: Printed for Cadell and Davies...

    First edition, a collection of three prose...

    £950