Search results
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KETT, Henry.
The Flowers of Wit, or a Choice Collection of Bon Mots, both antient and modern; with biographical and critical Remarks...
London: Printed for Lackington, Allen, and Co. … at the Weybridge Press, by S. Hamilton. 1814.
First edition, scarce, of a compilation of witty anecdotes and clever ripostes ordered alphabetically by author (including Cervantes, Queen Elizabeth, Samuel Johnson, ‘The Spartans’, Swift, Voltaire), and then by subject, with an appendix of ‘Puns’ and ‘Bulls’.
£150
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KINNAIRD, Douglas.
The Merchant of Bruges; or, Beggar’s Bush. With considerable Alterations and Additions. Now performing, with...
London: Printed for Whittingham and Arliss ... 1815
First edition of the only literary work by the intimate friend and banker of Lord Byron, who dedicated Hebrew Melodies to him in 1815. The play was produced at Drury Lane where both served on the Committee, dedicated to Lady Caroline Lamb’s brother-in-law (who contributed three songs), and has...
£250
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KIPLING, Rudyard.
Under the Deodars …
Published by Messrs. A. H. Wheeler & Co., Allahabad, [1888].
First edition, ‘reprinted in chief from the Week’s News’. Under the Deodars, No. 4 in Wheeler’s Indian Railway Library, contains six stories from Kipling’s time as a journalist, dealing with ‘things that are not pretty and uglinesses that hurt’. Adultery is a common theme, though...
£450
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[LANDOR, Walter Savage].
Count Julian: a Tragedy.
London: Printed for John Murray … by James Moyes … 1812.
First edition of Landor’s first play, unacted, but a succès d’éstime, published in ‘a small edition’ (Oxford DNB). The episode in Spanish history which it treats – the vengeance taken by Don Julián, 8th-century ruler of Ceuta, against Roderigo, King of the Goths, who has dishonoured...
£450
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[LANGHORNE, John].
Letters supposed to have passed between M. de St. Evremond and Mr. Waller. Now first collected and published....
London: Printed in the Year, 1770.
Unacknowledged second edition; first published in two volumes in 1769. These supposed letters between the poet Edmund Waller and his contemporary, the French essayist Saint-Evremond are in fact by the poet and translator John Langhorne; they range widely over literary matters, including anecdotes about...
£175
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LE SAGE, Alain René.
The History of Vanillo Gonzales, surnamed the merry Batchelor. In two Volumes. From the French …
London: Printed for G. G. and J. Robinson … 1797
First complete translation of Le Sage’s Histoire d’Estevanille Gonzalez, surnommé le garcon de bonne humeur (1734), itself a loose French adaptation of Vida y hechos de Estebanillo Gonzalez (1646), preserving only a few episodes of the Spanish original. Authorship of Vida y hechos...
£1250
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LEE, Henry.
[Cover title:] The White Whale …
London, R. K. Burt & Co. … 1878.
First edition, an account of the white Beluga whale by Henry Lee of the Royal Aquarium in Brighton, specifically of the first such whale successfully transported to England, exhibited for four days in 1877 before its death from pneumonia; and of four further whales transported the following year....
£225
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[MARANA, Giovanni Paolo (attr.).]
Letters on the French Nation, by a Sicilian Gentleman resident in Paris, to his Friend...
London: Printed for T. Lownds ... 1749.
First edition of this translation, very rare, of a work first printed in French in Paris in 1700 (see below) and, in a different translation, in English in 1704 as An agreeable Criticism of the City of Paris.
£1250
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[CARTOUCHE.]
The Life and Actions of Lewis Dominique Cartouche: who was broke alive upon the Wheel at Paris, Nov. 28. 1721. N.S....
London: Printed for J. Roberts … 1722.
First edition in English, published in the same year as the French original. Louis Dominique Bourguignon, alias ‘Cartouche’ (1693-1721), began his life of crime stealing fruit from women at the gates of his Jesuit school and books from his wealthy classmates. To avoid punishment for theft he fled...
£1750
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ALFIERI, Vittorio. LLOYD, Charles, translator.
The Tragedies of Vittorio Alfieri; translated from the Italian … In three Volumes …
London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown … 1815.
First edition of this translation, which Lloyd undertook ‘on the suggestion of a friend whose judgement I highly respect’. This friend was likely Southey, who he addresses as his ‘sponsor’ in the ‘Dedicatory Sonnet’. He held Southey in high esteem, and benefited from his friendship through...
£450
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[LONDON.]
Indenture tripartite concerning ‘two severall mesuages or tenements scituate lying and being in or neere fleetstreete...
[London], 20 May 1659
In 1641 Richard Baskerville, described as gentleman, acquired five messuages (houses) in or near Fleet Street from Katherine, the widow of Sir Simon Baskerville, the King’s physician who died that year and was buried in St. Paul’s Cathedral. By an indenture dated 5 August 1651 he granted a 500-year...
£650
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[LYTTELTON, George, Lord Lyttelton, attributed author].
The Court-Secret: a melancholy Truth. Now first translated from the original...
London: Printed for T. Cooper … 1741
First edition of a political satire in the guise of an oriental fable, criticizing the peace policy and wasteful expenditures of the Vizier [Walpole] in perpetuating ‘his ill-got Power’ in the prelude to the war with Spain, and implicating him in the death of Achmet [the Earl of Scarborough], the...
£350
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MABLY, Gabriel Bonnot, Abbé de.
Observations on the Romans. Written originally in French …
London: Printed for R. Griffiths … 1751.
First English edition of this Roman history (first published in the same year in Geneva as Observations sur les Romains). Mably studies episodes from the pre-imperial era (the seven kings, Gracchi and Punic wars), before skimming the vast majority of imperial dynastic rule to finish with a chapter...
£875
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MACAULEY, Auley.
A Sermon on the peculiar Advantages of Sunday Schools: preached in the Parish Church of St. Paul, Bedford, on...
London, Printed for C. Dilly … and sold by the Booksellers of Bedford, Northampton, and Leicester, for the Benefit of the Institution. [1792].
First edition of a rare sermon to promote Sunday Schools by the uncle of Thomas Babington Macaulay and brother of the abolitionist Zachary Macaulay.
£250
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MACFARLANE, Patrick.
A new and copious English and Gaelic Vocabulary, with the different Parts of Speech; in alphabetical Order....
Edinburgh: Printed [by R. Menzies] for the Author, and Sold by A. Constable and Co. Edinburgh. 1815.
First edition of this early English-Gaelic dictionary. The English-Gaelic Vocabulary was published alone, as here, at 5s.6d., or together with the Gaelic-English part at 12s.6d. The Gaelic scholar complied it because the ‘want of an English and Gaelic Vocabulary has long been a desideratum...
£175
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MAGNA CARTA.
Magna Charta: or, the Great Charter of King John; to which are added, the Declaration of the Estates of the Kingdom...
Glasgow: Printed by E. Miller. Sold by James Duncan, Junr. James Steel, and Walter Duncan, Booksellers. [c. 1810]
First edition thus, rare. COPAC and OCLC show Glasgow only.
£75
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MARTINEAU, Harriet.
British Rule in India; a historical Sketch …
London: Smith, Elder and Co … 1857.
First edition. Martineau wrote regularly for the Daily News from 1851-66, and produced nearly 1600 leaders in which she addessed international issues such as the American Civil War, and Britain’s position in the West Indies, Ireland and India. Her articles on India contributed to this work,...
£150
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[MARTINI, Ferdinand].
Breife. Aus dem Englischen übersetzt.
Soröe 1768, gedruckt bey Jonas Lindgreen, Ritterlich Akademischer Buchdrucker.
First edition of a rare, radical indictment of serfdom in Denmark, ostensibly ‘translated from the English’.
£750
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MEDINA POMAR, Duke de.
Fashion and Passion or, Life in Mayfair … by the Duke de Pomar… Author of “The Honeymoon” and “Through...
London: Chapman & Hall … 1877.
Second edition (first published in 1876) of this wildly-popular novel of London society, published after the first edition sold out in two months. It follows the fortunes of the beautiful Señorita Consuelo and her lover Alfredo, who meet on a small-trader passage from Bilbao to London. Consuelo’s...
£125
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MEREDITH, George.
Poems …
London: John W. Parker and Son … [1851].
First edition of Meredith’s first book, which he brought out at his ‘own risk, losing £50 or £60 on the venture’. ‘Not surprisingly he acquired a strong distate for what he later regarded as juvenilia with direct relationship to his first marriage’ (Collie), and there is some suggestion that...
£700