Foreign Literature

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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. [MAILLES, Jacques de.]

    La tresioyeuse plaisante & recreative hystoire...

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

    First edition of Jacques de Mailles’...

    £12500

  3. GAGUIN, Robert.

    La mer des croniques et mirouer hystorial...

    Paris, [Bernard Aubry for] Jacques Nyverd,...

    Very rare Paris vernacular edition (first...

    £8500

  4. [CHAMPIER, Symphorien.]

    La vie & les gestes du preux chevalier...

    Lyons, Olivier Arnoullet, [(colophon:)...

    A rare edition of Champier’s account...

    £9500

  5. PASSI, Carlo.

    La selva di varia istoria … la quale...

    Venice, Altobello Salicato, 1572.

    An unsophisticated copy of Passi and Ruscelli’s...

    £500

  6. MAUGIN, Jean.

    Histoire du noble Tristan, prince de Leonnois,...

    Paris, Nicolas Bonfons, 1586.

    A scarce edition of the New Tristan,...

    £4750

  7. MARTIAL.

    Epigrammaton libri XIII. Ex fide vetustissimorum...

    Paris, Jean Libert, 1612 [(colophon:) 1613].

    An uncommon small-format edition of Martial’s...

    £650

  8. EXPILLY, Claude.

    Les poemes de Messire Claude Expilly, Conseiller...

    Grenoble, Pierre Verdier, 1624.

    A wide-margined copy of the expanded second...

    £950

  9. CORNEILLE, Pierre.

    Nicomède tragedie.

    Rouen, Laurens Maurry, and Paris, Guillaume...

    Rare second edition (first 1651) of Corneille’s...

    £750

  10. SCARRON, Paul. 

    Le Marquis ridicule, ou la comtesse faite...

    [Leiden, Elzevier], 1656. 

    First Elzevier editions, very rare, of...

    £800

  11. [DUELLING.]

    Pieces en vers composées pour le prix...

    Paris, Claude Barbin, 1671.

    Seemingly unrecorded edition, one of two...

    £850

  12. [DE GRAAFT, attributed.]

    Avantures secrettes, et plaisantes. Recueillies...

    Brussels, George de Backer, 1696.

    Scarce first Brussels edition, published...

    £375

  13. 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

  14. [LAFONT, Joseph de.]

    Hypermnestre, tragedie, mise au theatre...

    Lyon, de l’imprimerie d’Aymé Delaroche...

    Very scarce Lyon edition of the libretto...

    £175

  15. [SAURIN, Bernard-Joseph, attributed.]

    Le nouvel an, pöeme heroī-fou.

    ‘A Brochuro-manie, l’an du deluge...

    An extremely rare satirical tale of two...

    £950

  16. [BILLARDON DE SAUVIGNY, Edme-Louis.]

    Voyage de Madame et de Madame Victoire.

    Lunéville, Messuy, [1761].

    Four rare works describing visits by the...

    £975

  17. [HERISSANT, Louis Théodore].

    Le fablier françois, ou élite des meilleurs...

    Paris, Lottin le jeune, 1771.

    First edition, rare, of what has a claim...

    £650

  18. DESENFANS, Noel Joseph.

    Les deux Hermites, dédié a mylord Lyttelton...

    A Londres; chez R. Davis … J Ridley...

    First and only edition, uncommon, of an...

    £650

  19. [LOQUET, Marie-Françoise].

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

    Paris, Charles-Pierre Berton, 1781.

    First edition of this rare utopian voyage...

    £1500

  20. [EROTICA.]

    La belle sans chemise.

    ‘A Londres’, 1797.

    Very rare edition, with a false London...

    £750