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.
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JEFFERIES, Richard.
Hodge and his Masters …
London, Smith, Elder, & Co. … 1880.
First edition, an influential volume of sketches of rural life, collected from Jefferies’ articles in the Wiltshire and Gloucestershire Standard. Jefferies (1848-1887) had published his first novel The Scarlet Shawl in 1874, after some years as a rural newspaperman; with Hodge and his Masters...
£450
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[JEFFREYS, George, first Baron Jeffreys].
The Life and Character of the late Lord Chancellor Jefferys [sic] ...
London: Printed by A. Moore ... 1725.
First edition of an uncomplimentary life of the notorious Judge Jeffreys, who presided at the trial of Titus Oates. The author, according to the introduction, was a ‘Practicer at the Bar’ recently deceased, who had lived to a good age and was ‘well acquainted with all the Chancellor’s Proceedings,...
£400
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JENKINS, Edward.
The Devil’s Chain … Twenty-sixth Thousand. With twelve Illustrations by Barnard and Thomson.
William Mullan & Son … London … Belfast, 1877.
25th Thousand, according to the binding, but ‘Twenty-sixth Thousand’ on the title-page.
£100
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JENKINS, Edward.
The Devil’s Chain … Twentieth Thousand. With twelve Illustrations by Barnard and Thomson.
[Southwark, M’Corquodale and Co. for] London and Belfast, William Mullan & Son, 1877.
A reissue of the illustrated edition, from a different publishing house, of this lively narrative tracing the ‘universally ruinous effect of drink on all classes of the English population’ (Sutherland) by Member of Parliament, anti-slavery campaigner, and ardent imperialist Edward Jenkins.
£100
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JESUS, Carlos Augusto Montalto de.
Historic Macao …
Hong Kong, Kelly & Walsh, 1902.
First edition of an important history of Macao by the Macanese scholar Montalto de Jesus (1863–1927), a fellow of the Geographical Society of Lisbon and a member of the China branch of the Royal Asiatic Society.
£950
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[JOHNSON, Charles].
Caelia: or, the perjur’d Lover. A Play. As it is acted at the Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane, by His Majesty’s...
London: Printed for J. Watts … 1733.
First edition. Caelia, Johnson’s last theatrical production, is an attack on the fashionable libertinism of the day. As the Preface explains, however, he refused to take Barton Booth’s advice and expunge the vivid brothel scenes, and a fastidious audience answered with their pockets. The play,...
£200
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[JOHNSON, Samuel].
Rasselas.
London: J. Bretell for Hector McLean, 1819.
Third Smirke edition, ordinary-paper issue. ‘All travel has its advantages,’ the lexicographer, essayist and critic Samuel Johnson (1709-84) wrote in his Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland. ‘If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own, and if fortune...
£300
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[JOHNSON, Samuel].
The Prince of Abissinia. A Tale. In two Volumes …
London: Printed for R. and J. Dodsley … and W. Johnston … 1759.
First edition of Johnson’s only novel, written in the evenings of a single week to pay for his mother’s funeral. Its rapid execution is said to have been due to the fact that he had been pondering its chief topics all his life. It soon became his most popular work. Although now inevitably called...
£1600
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[JOHNSON, Samuel].
A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland. London: Printed for W. Strahan; and T. Cadell … 1775.
London: Printed for W. Strahan; and T. Cadell … 1775
Unacknowledged second edition. Two thousand copies of the first edition were printed as far as sheet R when Strahan, sensing the demand, decided to increase the press run to four thousand. The 2000 overrun sheets, T-Z and 2A-2B, and a reprint of the earlier sheets A-D and F-R, may be identified...
£350
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[JOHNSON, Samuel.]
The Prince of Abissinia. A Tale …
London: Printed for R. and J. Dodsley … and W. Johnston … 1759.
First edition of Johnson’s only novel, written in the evenings of a single week to pay for his mother’s funeral.
£4500
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JOHNSON, Samuel.
Mr. Johnson’s Preface to his Edition of Shakespear’s Plays.
London, Printed for J. and R. Tonson [and eleven others] … 1765.
First separate edition. ‘The separate Preface seems to be scarce. It is possible that the publishers were reluctant to let people read Johnson’s preface without paying for his edition … and while unable in decency to resist the public demand – or the author’s request – protected...
£1500
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JOHNSON, Samuel.
A Dictionary of the English Language: in which the Words are deduced from their Originals, and illustrated in...
London, W. Strahan for J. and P. Knapton, T. and T. Longman, C. Hitch and L. Hawes, A. Millar, and R. and J. Dodsley, 1755.
First edition of ‘the most amazing, enduring and endearing one-man feat in the field of lexicography’ (PMM), this copy preserving 19D and 24O both in the first state.
£20000
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JONES, John Gale.
An Oration on the late General Washington, including a Retrospect of his Life, Character, and Conduct, from the...
Clark, William Dawson, and W. Limbird, 1825.
Scarce revised second edition, printed by subscription with a new preface, of this speech in praise of Washington by the English radical orator John Gale Jones (1769–1838).
£375
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JONSON, Benjamin.
The Workes …
London, Will Stansby, 1616.
An excellent set of the canonical Ben Jonson, the first collection of English plays in the proud format of a folio and the direct fore-runner of Shakespeare’s folios, here found with both the first (1616) and the corrected second editions (1640) of Volume I, and the first edition of Volume II[-III]...
£21000
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JOURNEY TO EMMAUS (A).
A sacred Dialogue ...
Dublin: Printed and sold by Oliver Nelson ... 1751.
First edition, dedicated to Frederick, Prince of Wales, as Chancellor of Trinity College.
£650
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JOYCE, James.
Giacomo Joyce … With an Introduction and Notes by Richard Ellman.
New York, The Viking Press, 1968.
First edition.
£125
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[JOYCE.] ROTH, Samuel [Edits.].
Two Worlds – A Literary Quarterly Devoted to the Increase of the Gaiety of Nations.
New York: Sign of the Mockigrisball, 1925.
First edition. Unnumbered, one of 500, of which 450 numbered copies were designated for subscribers. Between September 1925 and September 1926 Two Worlds published installments of Joyce’s ‘Work in Progress’ (Finnegan’s Wake), reprinted from European publications (in this case from Criterion,...
£150
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[JUSTICES OF THE PEACE.]
The Boke of Justices of Peas the Charge with all the Processe of the Cessions, Warrantes Supercedias &...
[Colophon: London, Richard Pynson], [1505–6?].
First edition(?), very rare, of the first printed guide for Justices of the Peace, issued with a short guide to land law.
£27500