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.
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MAGRE, Maurice.
Les trois métiers de Jeannet. Les bons tours d’Yan.
Paris, Hachette (Bibliothèque des écoles et des familles), [s.d. (but 1911?)].
Two scarce children’s stories, published as part of Hachette’s ‘Bibliothèque des écoles et des familles’.
£125
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MAINE DE BIRAN. [MARIE FRANÇOIS PIERRE GONTHIER DE BIRAN.]
Influence de l’Habitude sur la Faculté de Penser.
Paris, Henrichs, 1803.
First edition of Maine de Biran’s first major work, in which he draws a distinction between what he calls passive habits, i.e. sensations and impressions which become dulled with repetition, and active habits, i.e. those which are conscious, and willed. “The effect of this, which was borne out by...
£2000
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MANDELSTAM, Osip Emilyevich.
О Поэзии: СборникСтатей [O poezii: Sbornik statei; ‘On poetry: A collection...
Leningrad, Academia, 1928.
First edition of this collection of essays on poetry and the arts, by the prominent Acmeist poet Osip Mandelstam (1891–1938). ‘[Mandelstam] regarded the period during which he wrote these articles (1922-26) as the worst in his life. It was a period of decline, and in repudiating it altogether,...
£850
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MARIVAUX, Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de.
Le Paysan parvenu: or, the fortunate Peasant. Being Memoirs of the Life of Mr. ––––....
London: Printed for John Brindley … Charles Corbett … and Richard Wellington … 1735
First edition in English, originally published in French in the Hague in 1734-5. This is the second of the two important novels by Marivaux, which broke new ground in the art of writing fiction. ‘Where La Vie de Marianne belongs to the moralizing and sentimental romance tradition, Le Paysan...
£650
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MARKISH, Peretz Davidovich.
Rubezh. Izbrannye stikhi [Threshold. Selected poems]. Moscow, Goslitizdat, 1933.
[Selected poems]. Moscow, Goslitizdat, 1933.
First edition in Russian of the first book by the Soviet Yiddish poet and novelist Peretz Markish (1895-1952), a collection of poems, Shveln (Threshold, Kiev, 1919) which established his reputation as one of the most important Yiddish poets of his time.
£1800
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MARKISH, Peretz Davidovich.
Brat’ia [Brothers].
Moscow, Goslitizdat, 1935.
First edition in Russian of Markish’s epic poem Brider (Brothers, Kiev, 1929), an optimistic work glorifying the Communist regime.
£1200
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MARKISH, Peretz Davidovich.
Stikhotvoreniia i poemy. Perevod s evreiskogo [Poems, long and short. Translated from the Hebrew].
Moscow, Ogiz, 1945.
First edition, a collection of late poems by the pre-eminent Soviet Yiddish poet and novelist Peretz Markish; the translations are by several hands.
£300
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MARLOWE, Christopher, and Konstantin BAL’MONT, translator.
Tragicheskaia istoriia doktora Fausta [The Tragedy...
Moscow, K.F. Nekrasov, 1912.
First edition in book form, scarce, of Balmont’s translation of Marlowe’s Faustus, first published over two issues of the journal Zhizn in 1898.
£500
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MARSHAK, Samuil Iakovlevich, and Mikhail TSEKHANOVSKII.
Почта [Post].
Leningrad, ‘Pechatnyi Dvor’, 1931.
Sixth edition (first published by Raduga in 1927) of an attractive Marshak children’s story, with illustrations by the artist and animator Tsekhanovsky.
£750
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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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MATTHIEU, Pierre, et al.
Tablettes ou quatrains de la vie et de la mort. Par Pierre Matthieu, conseiller du roy.
Première [– troisième] partie … Rouen, Jacques Cailloué, 1628.
Very rare pocket-sized Rouen edition of verses on life and death by the poet and royal historiographer Pierre Matthieu (1563–1621), here printed with further poems by Guy du Faur de Pibrac, Antoine Favre and others. All early editions are extremely rare, many known in a single copy.
£3000
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MAURIAC, François.
Le Noeud de Vipères. Roman.
[Paris], Bernard Grasset, [1932].
First edition, one of 112 numbered copies on vélin pur fil. Le Noeud de Vipères is one of the major French Catholic novels of the 20th century: a marital drama, depicting an old lawyer's rancour toward his family, his passion for money, and his final conversion. ‘Written shortly after the resolution...
£550
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MELECRINIS, Maria Teresa.
Le voci del cuore a Maria Teresa Melecrinis dei baroni di Ioppolo e Coccorino che a di 6 luglio 1846...
Naples, stamperia dell' Iride, 1846.
Very rare collection of odes and sonnets composed to mark the entry of Maria Teresa Melecrinis into the Benedictine monastery of San Paolo at Sorrento.
£175
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MÉRIMÉE, Prosper.
La Chambre bleue. Nouvelle dédiée à Madame de la Rhune.
Brussels, Librairie de la Place de la Monnaie, 1872.
Very rare first procurable edition of Mérimée’s novella La Chambre bleue, one of 129 copies printed. The first edition (‘Biarritz, 1866’ = Paris, Jules Claye, 1871) was published in only three copies.
£500
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MESHCHERSKII, Elim Petrovich.
Les boréales par B. de G. et le prince Elim Mestscherski …
Paris, Bellizard, Dufour et Cie, 1839.
First edition of a rare French anthology of Russian poets, including early translations of six poems by Pushkin.
£800
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MESHCHERSKY, Elim Petrovich, Prince.
Les roses noires …
Paris, Amyot, 1845.
Scarce first edition of this anthology of French verse by Meshchersky, posthumously brought to press by his mother and friends, publishing – for the first time – Victor Hugo’s letter of condolence to the prince's mother.
£400
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MILHAUD, Darius.
Le boeuf sur le toit, ou The nothing doing bar. Farce imaginée et réglée par Jean Cocteau – costumes de G....
Paris, Editions de la Sirène, 1920.
First edition of Milhaud’s Le boeuf sur le toit, Op. 58 (The ox on the roof, or The nothing-doing bar), a surrealist ballet-farce which became extremely popular in 1920s Paris.
£2400
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MILHAUD, Darius, and Stéphane MALLARMÉ.
Deux petits airs …
[Paris, Éditions de la nouvelle revue française, 1921.]
First edition of Milhaud’s polytonal musical setting of two poems by Mallarmé, published as a New Year supplement for La revue musicale.
£750
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MILTON, John, and Manuel ALTOLAGUIRRE, translator.
Fragmento de El Paraíso perdido. Traducción y nota de Manuel...
Madrid, Cruz y Raya, 1935.
A rare off-print from Cruz y Raya, the periodical edited by José Bergamín. This is the first appearance in print of Altolaguirre’s translation from Book II of Milton’s Paradise Lost.
£150
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MONTERO LACASA, José.
Prototipos Bonaerenses. Ilustraciones del Autor.
[Buenos Aires,] Carlos y Roberto Nale, Editores, [1954.]
First edition of a collection of short stories of gaucho life, with atmospheric illustrations by the author. The title-verso advertises translations of the work into English and German, but we can find no evidence they were ever published.
£325