Foreign Literature

Contact Donovan Rees

This department specialises in rare and important works of French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish and South American literature from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries.

Here you can find first editions and signed or presentation copies of authors as diverse as Akhmatova, Balzac, Borges, Camus, Chekhov, Dostoevsky, Goethe, Goldoni, Hugo, Kafka, Leopardi, Lorca, Manzoni, Pirandello, Pushkin, Schiller, Tolstoy, Zola, and many others. Among the important works which have passed through our hands are the original working manuscript of Turgenev's Fathers and Sons, now in the Pushkin House in St Petersburg, the only known copy of the first edition of Brecht's first play, Baal (1920) with his working notes, and an extraordinary collection of Pushkin first editions.

 
  1. LA VIGNE, André de.

    Le vergier dhonneur nouvellement imprime...

    [(Colophon:) Paris, Philippe le Noir],...

    George Dunn’s copy of a rare early edition...

    £9500

  2. LEBEDEV, V.P.

    175 godovshchina Pervago Kadetskago korpusa....

    [St Petersburg,] Press of the First Corps...

    Only edition of this collection of poems...

    £180

  3. LEONOV, Leonid Maksimovich.

    Petushikhinskii prolom [The Break-up...

    Moscow, M. & S. Shabashnikov, 1923.

    First edition of an early short story about...

    £300

  4. LEONOV, Leonid Maksimovich.

    Tuatamur.

    Moscow, M. & S. Sabashnikov, 1924.

    First edition: one of Leonov’s early...

    £450

  5. LESKOV, Nikolai Semenovich.

    Soboriane. Stargorodskaia khronika [Cathedral...

    Moscow, University Press, March - July 1872.

    The first appearance in print of all five...

    £2500

  6. LESSING, Gotthold Ephraim, and Viktor KRYLOV (translator).

    Natan mudryi. Dramaticheskoe stikhotvorenie...

    St Petersburg, Stasiulevich, 1875.

    First edition in Russian of Lessing’s...

    £2000

  7. LEWIS, Wyndham.

    Ezra Pound, un saggio e tre disegni.

    Milan, all’insegna del pesce d’oro...

    First edition, an hors serie copy...

    £75

  8. [LIDIN, Vladimir Germanovich, editor.]

    Literaturnaia Rossiia. Sbornik sovremennoi...

    Moscow, “Novye vekhi”, 1924.

    First edition of an avant-garde collection...

    £1500

  9. LIVSHITS, Benedikt Konstantinovich.

    ...

    Moscow, “Uzel”, 1928.

    First collected edition. Livshits’ fifth...

    £600

  10. [LOQUET, Marie-Françoise].

    Voyage de Sophie et d’Eulalie, au Palais...

    Paris, Charles-Pierre Berton, 1781.

    First edition of this rare utopian voyage...

    £1500

  11. LUNACHARKSII, Anatolii Vaslievich.

    Piat’ farsov dlia liubitelei [Five farces...

    St Petersburg, “Shipovnik”, 1907.

    Very rare first edition of five early plays,...

    £500

  12. [LUNACHARSKII, Anatolii Vasilievich, and Sergei Mitrofanovich GORODETSKII, editors.]

    Styk. Pervyi sbornik stikhov Moskovskogo...

    Moscow, Moscow Guild of Poets, 1925.

    First edition of an anthology edited by...

    £250

  13. MACHADO, Antonio.

    Juan de Mairena. Sentencias, donaires,...

    Madrid, Espasa-Calpe, 1936.

    First edition of this philosophical and...

    £650

  14. MAGRE, Maurice.

    Les trois métiers de Jeannet. Les bons...

    Paris, Hachette (Bibliothèque des écoles...

    Two scarce children’s stories, published...

    £125

  15. [MAILLES, Jacques de.]

    La tresioyeuse plaisante & recreative hystoire...

    Paris, [(colophon:) Nicolas Cousteau for]...

    First edition of Jacques de Mailles’...

    £12500

  16. MANDELSTAM, Osip Emilyevich.

    О Поэзии: СборникСтатей...

    Leningrad, Academia, 1928.

    First edition of this collection of essays...

    £850

  17. MANN, Thomas.

    Tristan. Sechs Novellen …

    Berlin, Simon Fischer, 1903.

    First edition, first printing of Thomas...

    £1500

  18. MARCHESE, Annibale.

    Poema per la nascita del serenissimo Leopoldo...

    Naples, Felice Mosca, 1716.

    Rare first edition of this verse encomium...

    £650

  19. MARINO, Giambattista; Gasparo MURTOLA.

    La Murtoleide fischiate del cavalier Marino...

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

    Rare first edition of these Baroque burlesque...

    £900

  20. MARIVAUX, Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de.

    Le Paysan parvenu: or, the fortunate Peasant....

    London: Printed for John Brindley …...

    First edition in English, originally published...

    £650