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. AIKEN, Conrad.

    Thee.

    New York, George Braziller, 1967.

    First trade edition, inscribed ‘For...

    £250

  2. AIKEN, Conrad.

    Selected Poems.

    New York, Oxford University Press, 1964.

    Second printing (first 1961), inscribed:...

    £150

  3. ALMEIDA, Theodoro de.

    Lisboa destruida poema, author o P. Theodoro...

    Lisbon, Antonio Rodrigues Galhardo, 1803.

    First edition of this poem in six cantos,...

    £175

  4. [ANON.]

    Quia Amore Langueo.

    [Colophon:] Chiswick, Caradoc Press,...

    One of 250 copies on paper (there were...

    £75

  5. [ANON].

    Elogio del corno. Dell‘ autore della...

    Venice, Stamperia Graziosi, 1796.

    Only edition, as far as we can tell unrecorded,...

    £275

  6. ANSELMI, Giorgio, the younger

    Georgii Anselmi nepotis Epigrammaton libri...

    Venice, Maffeo Pasini, September 1528. 

    The definitive edition of the epigrams...

    £875

  7. ARNOLD, Edwin.

    Enfin: A Poem, hitherto unpublished, by...

    New York, printed by Thomas Perry Stricker...

    First edition, one of only fifty copies...

    £350

  8. A[RNOLD, Matthew].

    The Strayed Reveller, and other Poems. By A.

    London: B. Fellowes …1849

    First edition of Arnold’s first book,...

    £600

  9. AUDEN, W.H. Collected poems.

    Edited by Edward Mendelson.

    London, Faber and Faber, 1976.

    First edition. Denis Healey’s copy, with...

    £75

  10. AUDEN, Wystan Hugh.

    Louis MacNeice, a memorial Address, delivered...

    Privately printed for Faber & Faber, [1963].

    First edition, one of 250 copies.

    £150

  11. BEATTIE, James.

    Original Poems and Translations.

    London: Printed [by F. Douglas, Aberdeen?];...

    First edition of Beattie’s first collection....

    £450

  12. BEAUMONT, Joseph.

    Psyche: or Loves Mysterie in XX. Canto’s:...

    London, Printed by John Dawson for George...

    First edition. Beaumont was one of the...

    £1250

  13. BROME, Alexander.

    Songs and other Poems … The second Edition...

    London, Printed for Henry Brome … 1664.

    Second edition, adding much new material...

    £500

  14. BROWN, Arthur Henry.

    Autograph manuscript notebook mainly of...

    [Brentwood?, 1864–87].

    An autograph manuscript notebook composed...

    £450

  15. BROWNING, Elizabeth Barrett.

    Poems before Congress …

    London: Chapman and Hall … 1860.

    First edition of a slender collection of...

    £200

  16. [BROWN, Thomas, M.D.].

    The Bower of Spring, with other Poems …...

    Edinburgh: Printed for Archibald Constable...

    First edition. Brown was professor of Moral...

    £225

  17. BUQUOY, Georg Franz August de Longueval, Freiherr von Vaux, Graf von.

    Anregungen für philosophisch-wissenschaftliche...

    Leipzig, Breitkopf & Härtel, 1825.

    First edition, rare, of a comprehensive...

    £950

  18. BURNS, Robert.

    Autograph verse ‘Epitaph’ to ‘Grizzel...

    c. 1792.

    A charming bawdy ‘epitaph’ by Burns,...

    £15000

  19. [BURNS, Robert.] BRIGHT, Henry A[rthur].

    Some Account of the Glenriddell MSS. of...

    Liverpool, Gilbert G. Walmsley …, 1874.

    First edition, scarce, a presentation...

    £100

  20. [BYRON, George Gordon, Lord].

    Lara, a Tale. [and] Jacqueline, a Tale...

    London: Printed for John Murray … 1814.

    First edition, Randolph’s fourth variant...

    £400