English Literature
Contact Donovan Rees or Zach Larsen
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.
-
[BARCLAY MOUNTAIN, PENNSYLVANIA.]
Archive of over 200 letters, maps, accounts, and reports sent to Robert Barclay and later his...
Mostly Philadelphia and London, 1794–1854.
A large and coherent archive relating to a tract of 21,000 acres of coal-rich land in Pennsylvania, later known as Barclay Mountain, from its purchase in 1794 by the London brewer and merchant Robert Barclay (1751–1830) until its sale in 1853 by his son Charles Barclay (1780–1855). It takes in the...
£32500
-
BARDUZZI, Bernardino.
A Letter in Praise of Verona [1489]. In the original Latin Text with an English Translation by Betty Radice.
Verona, [Officina Bodoni,] 1974.
First edition, No. 34 of 150 copies: an elegant facsimile reprint of one of Verona’s rarest incunables. Barduzzi’s eulogistic letter to Giovanni Nesi was first printed in 1489 by Paulus Fridenperger. The Latin text is followed here by an English translation and a biographical postscript by Giovanni...
£375
-
BARRIE, James Matthew.
A set of seven first editions, and one first published edition, in uniform bindings.
London, 1888–1896.
An attractive set of J. M. Barrie’s early novels up to 1896, predominantly Scottish in setting.
£650
-
BATTY, John.
The Scope and Charm of antiquarian Study … Revised and enlarged …
London, George Redway, 1883.
First edition of The Liberty of independent historical research, second edition of The Scope and Charm of Antiquarian Study.
‘What is the use of bothering your head about the past?’ asks John Batty, a Yorkshire antiquary; he provides an answer in this beguilingly written guide to the...£150
-
BEARCROFT, Philip.
An historical Account of Thomas Sutton Esq; and of his Foundation in Charter-House …
London, E. Owen for F. Gyles, W. Hinchliffe, J. and P. Knapton, J. Stagg, and S. Birt, 1737.
First edition. Thomas Sutton (1532–1611) was an Elizabethan civil servant who made an enormous fortune from leases of land rich in coal in Durham. In 1611 he bought Howard House for £13,000 from the Earl of Suffolk; the building acquired its more familiar name, ‘Charterhouse’, after the order...
£250
-
BEARDSLEY, Aubrey, art editor; Henry HARLAND, literary editor.
The Yellow Book. An Illustrated Quarterly. Volume I...
London [– & New York], Elkin Mathews & John Lane [– John Lane, The Bodley Head], and Boston, Copeland & Day, April 1894 [− April 1897].
An excellent set of the first edition of The Yellow Book, the decade-defining illustrated quarterly that captured the spirit of decadence and aestheticism and gave its name to ‘the Yellow Nineties’.
£1750
-
BEATTIE, James.
Original Poems and Translations.
London: Printed [by F. Douglas, Aberdeen?]; and sold by A. Millar, 1760.
First edition of Beattie’s first collection. It is always described as his first book, but it is in fact preceded by an unique Elegy on Mrs Walker (1759), discovered by us in 1991 and now in the National Library of Scotland (but still not listed by ESTC).
£450
-
BEAUMONT, Francis, and John FLETCHER.
Cupids Revenge. As it was often acted (with great Applause) by the Children of the...
London, Thomas Jones, 1630.
Second edition of a striking classical revenge drama first acted at court, although not necessarily for the first time, on 5 January 1612, and first printed in 1615, then attributed to Fletcher alone. Modern consensus is that it is a collaboration, and perhaps one of the earliest by the pair – some...
£3500
-
BEAUMONT, Joseph.
Psyche: or Loves Mysterie in XX. Canto’s: displaying the Intercourse betwixt Christ and the Soule …
London, Printed by John Dawson for George Boddington, 1648.
First edition of this lengthy religious epic representing the journey of the personified Soul from England to the Holy Land and back, written by Beaumont, one of the Royalist fellows ejected from Cambridge in 1644.
£1250
-
BECKETT, Samuel.
Poems in English.
New York, Grove Press, [1963].
First American edition of Beckett’s first collection of poems, a presentation copy inscribed by Beckett on the title-page, ‘For Calvin and Joann’.
£1500
-
[BECKFORD, William.]
Vathek, conte arabe.
Paris, Chez Poinçot ... 1787.
First Paris edition of Beckford’s Gothic masterpiece in the original French, so considerably revised from the Lausanne edition (also 1787) as to amount to ‘almost a new version’ (Chapman & Hodgkin, p. 127). Beckford also took the opportunity to expand the notes from one to twenty-four pages.
£3250
-
[BECKFORD, William.]
Vathek, conte arabe.
Paris, Poinçot; Chatellerault, P. J. B Guimbert, 1787.
Extremely rare, the only traced copy, of a reissue of the sheets of the first Paris edition with a provincially printed cancel title adding to the imprint the imprimeur-libraire Pierre Jean Baptiste Guimbert, of Châtellerault. This is the rarest piece of Beckfordiana we have ever encountered,...
£3750
-
[BECKFORD, William, and Samuel HENLEY, translator.]
An Arabian Tale, from an unpublished Manuscript. With Notes critical...
London, Printed for W. Clarke … 1809.
Scarce second edition – in fact a reissue comprising the remainder sheets of the first edition of 1786 with a cancel title-page (printed by S. Gosnell) – of Henley’s English translation of Beckford’s Gothic masterpiece, first published against the author’s wishes and predating publication of...
£1500
-
BELLAMY, [Daniel].
Ethic Amusements. By Mr. Bellamy. Revised by his Son D. Bellamy, M.A. Chaplain of Petersham and Kew, in Surry …
London, W. Faden, for the Author, 1768.
First edition, Lord Camden’s copy of the scarce fine paper issue, of a collection of the miscellaneous writings of Daniel Bellamy Sr (b. 1687), edited by his son, also Daniel (1715–1788), and dedicated to the King; it is perhaps best known for the fine plates by George Bickham, which include a suite...
£1350
-
BENTHAM, Jeremy.
Plan of Parliamentary Reform, in the Form of a Catechism, with Reasons for each Article. With an Introduction,...
London: Printed in the Year 1817. Re-printed and Re-published, with Notes and Alterations, by Permission of the Author, by T. J. Wooler … 1818.
First edition thus of an inexpensive reprint of Bentham’s Plan of Parliamentary Reform (1817), the style adapted by Thomas Wooler, with Bentham’s permission, to ‘render it more easy of comprehension to the popular reader’. In this form it first appeared in instalments in Wooler’s radical...
£225
-
[BERKENHOUT, John].
Clavis anglica Linguæ botanicæ; or, a botanical Lexicon; in which the Terms of Botany, particularly those...
London: Printed for the Author. Sold by T. Becket, and A. de Hondt … and Mess. Hawes, Clarke, and Collins … 1764.
First edition, dedicated to John Hope of the University of Edinburgh, and written with the assistance of Arthur Lee of Virginia, winner of the Hope Medal in 1763.
£325
-
[BIGG-WITHER.]
Recipe and accounts book.
1730s, and 1845–53.
An eighteenth-century manuscript recipe book, with a short catalogue of silver plate, re-purposed over a hundred years later as a substantial account book for Tangier Park, Hampshire, by Rev. Lovelace Bigg-Wither (1805–1874), son and heir of the man who was famously, and briefly engaged to Jane Austen,...
£5000
-
[BIGG-WITHER.]
The Holy Bible, containing the Old Testament and the New …
London, Bonham Norton and John Bill, 1628.
An attractive octavo Bible, with the apocrypha, genealogies (with a map), psalms, and Common Prayer – this was the family Bible of the Bigg (later Bigg-Wither) family, including Harris Bigg-Wither, who was famously, if briefly, engaged to Jane Austen in 1802.
£8750
-
BLACKMORE, Richard, Sir.
King Arthur. An Heroick Poem. In twelve Books … to which is annexed an Index, explaining the...
London, Awnsham and John Churchil, and Jacob Tonson, 1697.
First edition. Blackmore’s first Arthurian epic Prince Arthur (1695), modelled after the Aeneid and based on Geoffrey of Monmouth, proved a commercial if not critical success. Arthur was a transparent parallel to William III, and William presented Blackmore with a gold medal and a knighthood...
£650
-
BLANCHARD, Edward Litt Leman.
A Pipe of Tobacco: with Whiffs and Clouds … With Illustrations.
London: H. Beal … [1840s?].
First edition, by the editor and play- and pantomime-writer E.L. Blanchard, comprising three ‘whiffs’ and two ‘clouds’ on the subject of tobacco, aimed ‘at a niche in the waistcoast pocket, rather than a more presuming station on the library shelf’. Blanchard knew Dickens and was in the 1840s...
£125