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.

  1. MACDIARMID, Hugh.

    Three Hymns to Lenin …

    Edinburgh, Castle Wynd Printers, [1957].

    First collected edition, inscribed ‘With...

    £200

  2. MACDIARMID, Hugh.

    Poems to Paintings by William Johnstone 1933 …

    Edinburgh, K.D. Duval, [1963].

    First edition.

    £25

  3. MACDIARMID, Hugh.

    ‘Direadh’ in Agenda Vol 2,7-8,

    May-June 1962.

    £25

  4. MACDIARMID, Hugh.

    More Collected Poems.

    [London,] MacGibbon & Kee, [1970].

    First edition.

    £50

  5. MACDIARMID, Hugh.

    Direadh I, II and III …

    [Stamperia Valdonega for] Frenich, Foss,...

    First edition, no. 29 of 200 signed copies...

    £175

  6. MACDIARMID, Hugh [i.e. Christopher GRIEVE], and Valda TREVLYN GRIEVE.

    Three Christmas cards, signed from Christopher...

    undated.

    Three Christmas cards to Douglas Geoffrey...

    £100

  7. MACLEISH, Archibald.

    Conquistador.

    Boston and New York, Houghton Mifflin, 1932.

    First edition, signed ‘Archibald MacLeish...

    £300

  8. MARINO, Giambattista; Gasparo MURTOLA.

    La Murtoleide fischiate del cavalier Marino...

    ‘Norinbergh’ [i.e. Venice], Ioseph...

    Rare first edition of these Baroque burlesque...

    £900

  9. MARKISH, Peretz Davidovich.

    Brat’ia [Brothers].

    Moscow, Goslitizdat, 1935.

    First edition in Russian of Markish’s...

    £1200

  10. MATTHIEU, Pierre, et al.

    Tablettes ou quatrains de la vie et de...

    Première [– troisième] partie …...

    Very rare pocket-sized Rouen edition of...

    £3000

  11. MELECRINIS, Maria Teresa. 

    Le voci del cuore a Maria Teresa Melecrinis...

    Naples, stamperia dell' Iride, 1846. 

    Very rare collection of odes and sonnets...

    £175

  12. MEREDITH, George.

    Poems …

    London: John W. Parker and Son … [1851].

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

    £700

  13. MEREDITH, George.

    Modern Love, and Poems of the English Roadside,...

    London, Chapman & Hall, 1862.

    First edition of a daring and innovative...

    £450

  14. MIRANDULA (or MIRANDOLA), Ottaviano. 

    Illustrium poetarum flores. 

    Antwerp, Joannes Bellerus, 1563. 

    A remarkable copy, with numerous and eloquent...

    £1950

  15. MOORE, Thomas.

    Lalla Rookh, an Oriental Romance … eleventh...

    London, [A. & R. Spottiswoode for] Longman,...

    An early edition of Thomas Moore’s popular...

    £450

  16. MOUSSON, Pierre.

    Tragoediae seu diversarum gentium et imperiorum...

    La Flèche, George Griveau, 1621.

    First edition, provincially-printed, of...

    £725

  17. [NAPOLEONIC ITALY.] 

    Alla società delle gentilissime signore...

    Turin, Giacomo Fea, 1799.

    An unrecorded sonnet addressed to the to...

    £375

  18. [NUPTIALIA.]

    Per le Faustissime Nozze del Nobile Signor...

    Guastalla, ‘Nella Regio-Ducale Stamperia...

    Seemingly unrecorded, provincially printed...

    £250

  19. [NUPTIALIA.]

    Bartolomeo MOLAJONI.  Alla neogama donzella...

    Viterbo, brothers Poggiarelli, 1811. 

    Seemingly unrecorded sonnet addressed to...

    £275

  20. [ORDE, John Powlett.]

    A collection of 111 original compositions...

    Eton, 1818–1820.

    A delightful insight into classical education...

    £1750