English Literature
Contact Donovan Rees
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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ELLIOTT, Mary [née Belson].
Simple Truths, in Verse; for the Amusement and Instruction of Children at an early Age …
London: William Darton, sold also by Harvey and Darton … and John Harris … [c. 1825].
‘Fourth edition, corrected and revised’. Elliott was an extremely prolific author for Darton. These poems are settings of Anna Letitia Barbauld’s Hymns in Prose for Children (1791).
£200
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[ENGELBRECHT, Martin.]
[Vier Jahreszeiten. Serie 89.]
[Augsburg, Martin Engelbrecht, c. 1750.]
An attractive hand-coloured engraved peepshow showing the four seasons, with summer in the foreground retreating into winter behind, lined with printed waste from an illustrated Dutch religious broadside.
£1750
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ERASMUS, Desiderius.
Collectanea adagiorum.
[(Colophon:) Strasbourg, Matthias Schürer, 1519.]
Intensely annotated copy of a lifetime edition of Erasmus’ repository of Greek and Latin proverbs. The first version of the Adagia, containing about eight hundred maxims, had been published in 1500. Erasmus continued to add to his thesaurus for over thirty years, the success of this...
£5850
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ETHEREGE, George.
The comical Revenge, or Love in a Tub. Acted at his Highness the Duke of York’s Theatre in Lincolns-Inn-Fields ...
London, Printed for Henry Herringman ... 1669.
Fourth edition of Etherege’s first play, preceded by two editions of 1664 and one of 1667; this is the scarcer of two printings for Herringman in 1669, with ‘fields’ rather than ‘Fields’ in the title, and the catchword ‘hope’ not ‘the’ on A2r.
£500
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EUSEBIUS CAESARIENSIS; RUFINUS AQUILEIENSIS, translator.
Historia ecclesiastica.
Rome, Johannes Philippus de Lignamine, 15 May 1476.
The Syston Park copy of the earliest history of the Christian Church, written in the early fourth century; this is probably the third edition. It was translated into Latin in the early fifth century by Rufinus of Aquileia, who extended the text down to the time of Theodosius at the end of the...
£4500
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FAGNANI, Giovanni Marco.
De bello Arriano libri sex.
Milan, heirs of Pacifico da Ponte and Giovanni Battista Piccaglia, 1604.
First and only edition of the sole published work by the Italian nobleman Giovanni Marco Fagnani (1524–1609), an epic poem recounting Ambrose of Milan’s campaign against local Arians in late fourth-century Lombardy.
£900
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FARIS, Ahmad.
Abdaʻ ma-kan fi suwar Salitan Al ʻUthman … Album des souverains Ottomans édité par Selim Faris Effendy directeur...
Leipzig, Carl Garte, [c. 1885].
A handsome set of portraits of thirty-four Ottoman Sultans from Osman I, founder of the Ottoman Empire, to Abdul Hamid II, who reigned from 1876 to 1909, this copy annotated with notes in Arabic.
£3500
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FAULKNER, William.
Absalom, Absalom!
New York, Random House, 1936.
First edition, the special limited issue, no. 159 of 300 copies signed by Faulkner.
£4500
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FAULKNER, William.
Requiem for a Nun.
New York, Random House, 1951.
Limited edition, no. 248 of 750 copies signed by Faulkner. His first publication after winning the Nobel Prize, Requiem for a Nun employs a partly dramatic form to take up the story of Temple Drake from his earlier novel Sanctuary.
£1000
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FAULKNER, William.
A Fable.
[New York,] Random House, [1954].
Limited edition, no. 880 of 1000 copies signed by Faulkner. A late, overtly political novel set in the French trenches during the First World War, A Fable was the first novel to win both the Pulitzer and National Book Award. Faulkner thought it his greatest work.
£1500
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[FÉNELON, François de Salignac de La Mothe.]
The Adventures of Telemachus, the son of Ulysses. In twenty-four books. With the...
London, M. Matthews; A. Bettesworth; T. Bickerton; W. and J. Innys; and J. Wilford, 1721.
First illustrated edition of the first English translation of Francois de Salignac de La Mothe-Fenelon’s speculum principis, with twenty-four engraved plates and a map of Telemachus’ journey through the Mediterranean.
£550
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FENOUILLOT DE FALBAIRE, Charles-Georges.
Le fabricant de Londres, drame en cinq actes et en prose; représenté à la Comédie...
Paris, chez Delalain, 1771.
First edition of a London-set play by the French dramatist and contributor to the Encyclopédie, Fenouillot de Falbaire (1727–1800), illustrated with five fine plates after Gravelot.
£250
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FERNÁNDEZ, Jerónimo.
The famous and delectable History of Don Bellianis of Greece, or, the Honour of Chivalry. Containing his...
London, Francis Kirkman, 1673, 1671, 1672.
First complete edition of Francis Kirkman’s version of the chivalric romance of Belianis of Greece, a continuation of Amadis de Gaul first published in Spanish in 1547. A partial English translation had appeared in 1598, and Kirkman had earlier published editions of parts I (1650) and...
£3750
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FERRARI, Giovanni Francesco.
Le rime burlesche, sopra varii, et piacevoli soggetti; indrizzate à diversi nobili signori.
Venice, heirs of Melchior Sessa, 1570.
First edition of the only work published by Giovanni Francesco Ferrari (d. 1588?), a Renaissance court poet of whom little is known, including poems in macaronic Spanish, several Italian dialects, and in lingua zerga, or furbesco, derived from the jargon of criminals.
£1250
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FIDDES, Richard.
A General Treatise of Morality, form’d upon the Principles of natural Reason only. With a Preface in Answer...
London: Printed for S. Billingsley … 1724.
First edition, the variant with the misprint ‘FIDDFS’ in the author’s name on the title. ‘Written against Shaftesbury’s Inquiry Concerning Virtue and Mandeville’s Fable of the Bees, and displaying marked sympathy with the works of Malebranche and [John] Norris of Bemerton, this book was a...
£850
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FIELDING, Henry.
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling …
Paris: Printed by Fr. Amb. Didot the eldest, and sold by J. N. Pissot, and Barrois Junior … Booksellers. 1780.
The first French edition in English of Fielding’s masterpiece, only the second English edition to be printed abroad (after Dresden, 1774). Here the text benefits from critical attention by Didot, who collated Murphy’s edition of Fielding’s Works with the last separate English edition.
£425
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FIELDING, Henry.
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling. In six Volumes …
London: Printed for A. Millar … 1749.
Second edition, although not so designated, the errata corrected and the errata leaf in volume I omitted (the ‘Contents’ extended to c8 recto to fill the gap). The first edition (2000 copies) was almost completely subscribed before publication when this second edition (1500 copies) was ordered....
£1350
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[FIELDING, Sarah.]
The adventures of David Simple: containing an account of his travels through the cities of London and Westminster,...
London, printed for A. Millar, 1744.
First edition, very fine. The first and most popular novel of Sarah, the sister of Henry Fielding, who was to provide a preface and a few revisions to the second edition.
£1500
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FLETCHER, Giles, the younger.
Christs Victorie, and Triumph in Heaven, and Earth, over, and after Death …
Cambridge, Printed by C. Legge. 1610.
First edition of an important poem, a ‘worthy link’ in the chain which connects Fletcher’s great master, Spenser, with his great successor, Milton (Hugh de Selincourt, CHEL). This is the first state, with a fleur-de-lis device on the title-pages – three copies are known with the title-pages reset...
£3500
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FLORUS, L. Annaeus; Lucius AMPELIUS; Claude SAUMAISE, editor.
[Rerum romanarum libri IV and Epitome historiae...
Leiden, Elzevir, 1638.
The attractive Elzevir edition of Florus’ Roman history, containing the editio princeps of Ampelius’ history, in a handsome English Restoration binding with highly unusual edge decoration.
£650