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.
-
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 Dickens’ weekly periodical, featuring a collection of short stories and his two novels The Old Curiosity Shop and Barnaby Rudge.
£175
-
D’ISRAELI, Isaac.
Romances …
London: Printed for Cadell and Davies … Murray and Highley … J. Harding … and J. Wright. 1799.
First edition, a collection of three prose tales by the father of the novelist and Prime Minister, with an introductory ‘Poetical Essay on Romance and Romancers’. The longest piece is ‘Mejnoun and Leila, the Arabian Petrarch and Laura’, which has echoes of Beckford and draws on the learned orientalism...
£950
-
EDE.
A Story. Three Volumes ...
London: Remington & Co. Publishers ... 1889.
First edition. Stifled by her boring life as the pampered daughter of a rich Midlands banker, Edith runs away to the neighbouring Potteries. She uses skills acquired as an accomplished young lady of leisure to get a job in the local porcelain factory as painter on china. She soon finds herself promoted...
£450
-
ELIOT, George.
The Writings …
Boston and New York, Houghton Mifflin and Company, 1908.
The Large-Paper edition of Eliot’s complete works, no. 184 of 750 sets.
£2500
-
FAULKNER, William.
Absalom, Absalom!
New York, Random House, 1936.
First edition, the special limited issue, no. 159 of 300 copies signed by Faulkner.
£4500
-
FAULKNER, William.
Requiem for a Nun.
New York, Random House, 1951.
Limited edition, no. 248 of 750 copies signed by Faulkner. His first publication after winning the Nobel Prize, Requiem for a Nun employs a partly dramatic form to take up the story of Temple Drake from his earlier novel Sanctuary.
£1000
-
FAULKNER, William.
A Fable.
[New York,] Random House, [1954].
Limited edition, no. 880 of 1000 copies signed by Faulkner. A late, overtly political novel set in the French trenches during the First World War, A Fable was the first novel to win both the Pulitzer and National Book Award. Faulkner thought it his greatest work.
£1500
-
[FÉNELON, François de Salignac de La Mothe.]
The Adventures of Telemachus, the son of Ulysses. In twenty-four books. With the...
London, M. Matthews; A. Bettesworth; T. Bickerton; W. and J. Innys; and J. Wilford, 1721.
First illustrated edition of the first English translation of Francois de Salignac de La Mothe-Fenelon’s speculum principis, with twenty-four engraved plates and a map of Telemachus’ journey through the Mediterranean.
£550
-
FIELDING, Henry.
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling …
Paris: Printed by Fr. Amb. Didot the eldest, and sold by J. N. Pissot, and Barrois Junior … Booksellers. 1780.
The first French edition in English of Fielding’s masterpiece, only the second English edition to be printed abroad (after Dresden, 1774). Here the text benefits from critical attention by Didot, who collated Murphy’s edition of Fielding’s Works with the last separate English edition.
£425
-
FIELDING, Henry.
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling. In six Volumes …
London: Printed for A. Millar … 1749.
Second edition, although not so designated, the errata corrected and the errata leaf in volume I omitted (the ‘Contents’ extended to c8 recto to fill the gap). The first edition (2000 copies) was almost completely subscribed before publication when this second edition (1500 copies) was ordered....
£1350
-
[FIELDING, Sarah.]
The adventures of David Simple: containing an account of his travels through the cities of London and Westminster,...
London, printed for A. Millar, 1744.
First edition, very fine. The first and most popular novel of Sarah, the sister of Henry Fielding, who was to provide a preface and a few revisions to the second edition.
£1500
-
GALLICO, Paul.
An archive of thirty-four scrapbooks compiled by Gallico.
1928–1972.
A lovingly and meticulously compiled archive of the writing career of the novelist Paul Gallico. The scrapbooks are arranged chronologically and by book/film with letters, telegrams, publicity materials, photographs and ephemera neatly intermingled with copies of reviews and reactions from local,...
£5500
-
GISSING, George.
The Unclassed, A Novel … in three Volumes.
London, Chapman and Hall, 1884.
First edition of Gissing’s second novel – and Bernard Shaw’s favourite of his novels – in the single-volume remaindered issue in red cloth.
£950
-
GLAISTER, Elizabeth.
The Perfect Path. A Novel … in two Volumes …
London, Smith, Elder, & Co. … 1884.
First and only edition, scarce. The novel opens among a group of English expatriates in Mentone on the French Riviera, where Colonel Ashby wastes money at Monte Carlo. His spirited, ‘slangy’ and distinctly wayward daughter, Cordelia, is invited to live with her aunt in rural England, where her greatest...
£450
-
GODWIN, William.
Fleetwood: or, the new Man of Feeling … In three Volumes …
London: Printed for Richard Phillips … 1805.
First edition of Godwin’s third novel, like Caleb Williams a psychological and philosophical tale intended in some measure as a criticism of Rousseau. Casimir Fleetwood announces at the outset: ‘The proper topic of the narrative I am writing is the record of my errors. To write it, is the act of...
£650
-
[GRATTAN, Thomas Colley].
The Heiress of Bruges; a Tale of the Year Sixteen Hundred … In four Volumes …
London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley … 1830.
First edition of Grattan’s first novel, a sprawling historical romance set in the Low Countries during the time of Spanish occupation, charting the fortunes of the eponymous heiress and her numerous suitors alongside the military upsets of the period. It was ‘one of the best historical romances of...
£450
-
[GREENE, Asa.]
The Perils of Pearl Street, including a taste of the dangers of Wall Street, by a late merchant.
New York, Betts & Anstice and Peter Hill, 1834.
First edition of a very early Wall Street novella, the fictional tale of Billy Hazard, an innocent carpenter’s son from rural New York state determined to make it as a merchant in the city. Billy’s attempts to establish himself in the mercantile trade in New York City are ultimately unsuccessful...
£2750
-
GREENE, Graham.
A burnt-out Case.
London, Heinemann, [1961].
Uncorrected proof copy of the first edition in English. This was evidently used as a review copy, with the upper cover annotated in pencil ‘700 words by Nov 28’. The unknown reviewer has made several notes in pencil on the half-title: ‘Criticism – c[oul]d come from the soc[ial] realist...
£275
-
HEMINGWAY, Ernest.
A Farewell to Arms.
New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1929.
First edition, first printing, without the disclaimer on p. [x] and with the Scribner’s seal on the copyright page.
£1500
-
[HERVEY, Elizabeth.]
The Mourtray Family. A Novel …
London: Printed by Millar Ritchie … for R. Faulder … 1800.
First edition of the penultimate novel by Elizabeth Hervey (c. 1748–1820), elder half-sister of the writer William Beckford – her father, Francis Marsh, had died and her mother Maria (née Hamilton) remarried another Jamaica plantation owner, William Beckford senior, who also died...
£2500