English Literature
Contact Donovan Rees or Zach Larsen
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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[GUARINI, Giovanni Battista.]
Il Pastor Fido.
‘In Parigi, appresso Tomaso Iolly, 1706’.
Scarce Parisian edition of Guarini’s immensely popular ‘pastoral tragi-comedy’, charmingly illustrated by Antonio Luciani.
£175
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HALIFAX, George Savile, Marquis of.
Miscellanies … viz. I. Advice to a Daughter. II. The Character of a Trimmer. III. The Anatomy...
London: Printed for Matt. Gillyflower … 1700.
First edition, the issue without the two rows of ornaments to the title-page, and with Q4-R3 uncancelled. Defoe’s Letter to a Dissenter (first published 1688) rather than Halifax’s was printed in error on leaves Q4-R3, and these leaves are cancelled in later issues (in the present copy Q4 is torn...
£450
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HALLAM, Arthur Henry.
Remains, in Verse and Prose …
[London,] Printed by W. Nicol, 1834.
First edition, a presentation copy from the editor, the historian Henry Hallam, to his late son’s friend and fellow Cambridge ‘Apostle’ James Spedding. The prefatory memoir by Hallam senior includes a long letter from Spedding (‘one of his most valued friends’) (pp. xx-xxvi), here...
£5000
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[HALL STEVENSON, John.]
Makarony Fables …
London: ‘Printed for Circulation among private Subscribers only’, 1897.
Limited edition, numbered 172 of 300 copies, of this collection of satiric fables in verse by the poet and satirist John Hall-Stevenson (1718–1785), reprinted from the original edition of 1768. Hall-Stevenson’s reputation relies heavily on his friendship with Laurence Sterne, his contemporary...
£100
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HAYWARD, Thomas.
The British Muse, or, a Collection of Thoughts moral, natural, and sublime, of our English Poets: who flourished...
London, Printed for F. Cogan … and J. Nourse … 1738.
First edition of this interesting antiquarian miscellany of literary extracts. The subjects, arranged alphabetically, range from ‘Abbeys’ to ‘Youth’ via ‘Abstinence’, ‘Hypocrite’ ‘Mediocrity’ ‘Rebellion’ ‘Self-Murder’, and ‘Travel’. The authors quoted include Beaumont,...
£575
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HAY, William.
Mount Caburn. A Poem. Humbly inscribed to Her Grace the Dutchess of Newcastle …
London: Printed for J. Stagg … 1730.
First edition. Hay’s only original poetic composition, Mount Caburn is a celebration of his native Sussex, historical, antiquarian and archaeological, as viewed from a hill fort on the South Downs near Lewes. The poem is dedicated to Henrietta Pelham-Holles, wife of the secretary of state, hinting...
£375
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HEADLEY, Henry, editor.
Select Beauties of ancient English Poetry …
London, Printed for T. Cadell … 1787.
First edition. This important miscellany – which would have been continued had not the young editor died in 1788 at the age of twenty-three – explores some of the byways of Elizabethan and early Stuart poetry. After a long introductory appreciation with biographical sketches of the poets, the verse...
£675
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HEINSIUS, Daniel.
Poematum editio nova; accedunt praeter alia libri, De contemptu mortis antehac una non editi.
Leiden, [Isaac] Elzevir and Jean Maire, 1621.
First Elzevir edition of the poems of Daniel Heinsius (1580–1655), expanded to include his didactic epic De contemptu mortis, on facing death with courage, our copy in a handsome red morocco binding attributed to Roger Payne from the celebrated library at Syston Park.
£800
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HEWIT, Alexander.
Poems on various Subjects, (English and Scotch,) …
Berwick-upon-Tweed, Printed for the Author, by W. Lochhead, [1823].
First edition, scarce, possibly the dedication copy though subsequently defaced, of this collection of poems by ‘The Berwickshire Ploughman’.
£275
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HOGG, James.
The Pilgrims of the Sun; a Poem …
London, John Murray, and Edinburgh, William Blackwood, 1815.
First edition, first issue, of a long poem by the Scottish shepherd and poet James Hogg, dedicated to Byron and detailing the journey of a local young woman, Mary Lee, to a heavenly world and back to earth, escorted by the spirit Cela.
£200
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HORACE; James TATE, editor.
Horatius restitutus: or the books of Horace arranged in chronological order according...
Cambridge, J. Smith for J. & J.J. Deighton, 1832.
First edition of this attempt to arrange the books of Horace in chronological order by the classical scholar and master of Richmond School, James Tate (1771–1843), this copy presented by him to Thomas Gaisford (1779–1855), classicist, Dean of Christ Church Oxford, Regius Professor of Greek,...
£150
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HOSSCHIUS, Sidronius.
Sidronii Hosschii e Societate Iesu elegiarum libri sex. Praemittuntur illustrissimorum virorum poemata in...
Antwerp, Balthasar Moretus ‘ex officina Plantiniana’, 1656.
First collected edition of the neo-Latin verse of the Flemish Jesuit and poet Sidronius Hosschius (Sidron de Hossche, 1596–1653), edited after his death by his fellow poet Jacques van de Walle (1599–1690), and prefaced with poems on Hosschius’ death commissioned by the future Pope Alexander...
£600
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HUGHES, John.
Poems on several Occasions. With some select Essays in Prose. In two Volumes …
London: Printed for J. Tonson and J. Watts. 1735.
First edition of the principal collection of the author’s works, published posthumously and edited, with a long biographical preface, by his brother-in-law, William Duncombe. John Hughes (1677–1720) was educated at a dissenting academy where Isaac Watts was his contemporary. From an early...
£850
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HUGHES, Ted.
T.S. Eliot: A Tribute by the Poet Laureate.
[London,] ‘Privately Printed by [the Salient Seedling for] Faber and Faber’, [August 1987].
A privately printed tribute to T.S. Eliot, limited to 250 copies signed by Ted Hughes. The text comprises an address given by Hughes on 26 September 1986, at the unveiling of Eliot’s blue plaque at Kensington Court Gardens.
£175
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[HUGMAN, John.]
Original Poems, in the moral, heroic, pathetic and other Styles. By a Traveller … Seventeenth Edition.
Halesworth, printed for the author by T. Tippell, 1835.
Seventeenth edition of a collection that first appeared in several editions in several locations in 1825 (Brighton, Clare, Colchester, Cambridge), initially comprising an assemblage of separately printed poems. The original title was Original Poems in the Amatory, Heroic, Pathetic and other...
£75
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[JAMIESON, John.]
Congal and Fenella; A Tale in Two Parts.
London, C. Dilly, 1791.
First and only edition of Jamieson’s Scottish epic, bound with an early edition of Gray’s Poems.
£250
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JARRELL, Randall.
Selected Poems ...
London, Faber and Faber Limited, [1956].
First edition, inscribed ‘With all best wishes, Randall Jarrell / I’ve … enjoyed getting to read for you’.
£150
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JOURNEY TO EMMAUS (A).
A sacred Dialogue ...
Dublin: Printed and sold by Oliver Nelson ... 1751.
First edition, dedicated to Frederick, Prince of Wales, as Chancellor of Trinity College.
£650
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JOYCE, James.
Giacomo Joyce … With an Introduction and Notes by Richard Ellman.
New York, The Viking Press, 1968.
First edition.
£125