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.

  1. FRY, Theodore.

    A brief Memoir of Francis Fry, F.S.A. of...

    [London, Printed by Barclay and Fry,] 1887.

    First edition. Francis Fry (1803–1886)...

    £850

  2. FULBECKE, William.

    An Historicall Collection of the continuall...

    London, Printed for William Ponsonby. 1601.

    First edition of Fulbecke’s Historicall...

    £5250

  3. GADESBY, Richard.

    A new and easy Introduction to Geography,...

    London, for the Author, and sold by S. Bladon,...

    Second edition, very rare, published following...

    £550

  4. GARDINER, John Smallman. 

    The Art and the Pleasures of Hare-Hunting. ...

    London: Printed by R. Griffith … 1750. 

    First edition, scarce, of this eloquent...

    £1250

  5. GIOVIO, Paolo. 

    Elogia veris clarorum virorum imaginibus...

    Venice, Michele Tramezzino, 1546. 

    First edition of Giovio’s biographies...

    £3000

  6. GIOVIO, Paolo.

    Historiarum sui temporis. Tomus primus...

    Lyon, heirs of Sébastien Gryphe, 1561.

    The first Lyon pocket edition of Giovio’s...

    £350

  7. GOLDSMITH, Oliver.

    Essays … Collecta revirescunt.

    London: Printed for W. Griffin … 1765.

    First edition, a collection of twenty-seven...

    £500

  8. [GOLDSMITH, Oliver.]

    The Vicar of Wakefield: a Tale. Supposed...

    London, Printed for F. Newbery … 1766.

    Second edition, published two months after...

    £850

  9. GOODWIN, Thomas.

    Romanae Historiae Anthologia … An English...

    Oxford, Leonard Lichfield for Henry Cripps,...

    Early editions of these two popular schoolbooks...

    £1600

  10. GOODWIN, Thomas.

    Romanae Historiae Anthologia … An English...

    London, R.W. for Peter Parker, 1661.

    A wholly unsophisticated Restoration sammelband...

    £850

  11. [GRANT, Charles, Vicomte de Vaux.]

    Recueil d’Essais, ou précis des opinions,...

    A Londres: De l’Imprimerie de T. Spilsbury...

    An interesting tract volume, containing...

    £1500

  12. GUAZZO, Marco.

    Historie di M. Marco Guazzo di tutti i...

    Venice, Giolito, 1549.

    First edition thus, this copy owned by...

    £3600

  13. GUILLIM, John.

    A Display of Heraldrie: manifesting a more...

    London, Thomas Cotes for Jacob Blome, 1638.

    Third edition, corrected and enlarged,...

    £950

  14. HALL, Major Herbert Byng.

    The Adventures of a Bric-a-Brac Hunter …

    London: Tinsley Brothers … 1868.

    First edition of a charming travel guide...

    £275

  15. HAZLITT, William.

    Conversations of James Northcote, Esq.,...

    London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley …...

    First edition of Hazlitt’s final book,...

    £200

  16. HAZLITT, William.

    Conversations of James Northcote, Esq.,...

    London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley …...

    First edition of Hazlitt’s final book,...

    £250

  17. HEBER, Reginald, and Nicolas BARKER (editor).

    A Letter from India.

    The Roxburghe Club, 2020.

    'I do not expect that with fair prospects...

    £100

  18. HILL, Richard, Sir.

    Logica Wesleiensis: or, the Farrago double...

    London: Printed for E. and C. Dilly …...

    First and only edition, a somewhat eccentric...

    £575

  19. HILL, Rowland.

    Journal of a Tour through the North of...

    London: Printed by T. Gillet … and sold...

    First edition, an account of a Scottish...

    £325

  20. [HILL, ‘Sir’ John].

    A Night Scene at Ranelagh on Wednesday...

    [London], May 29 Publish’d … by H....

    Sole edition. The self-styled ‘Sir’...

    £650