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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[WARD, Edward, and VOLTAIRE.]
The Humourous and Diverting Story of Two...
6, Punderson’s-Place, Bethnal-Green-Road’,...
Seemingly unrecorded edition of this humorous...
£450
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[WASHINGTON, George.] PAINE, Thomas.
An Eulogy on the Life of General George...
Newburyport, Edmund M. Blunt, 1800.
First edition of this eulogy on Washington,...
£250
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WATSON, Sheila.
‘The Great War, Wyndham Lewis and the...
The recordings included are three sections...
£50
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[WAX MODELS.] Gaetano PECCI.
Broadside advertising an itinerant show...
[Venice], Casali stampatore, [c. 1815].
A seemingly unrecorded broadside advertising...
£500
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[WESTMINSTER ELECTION.]
A True and impartial Collection of Pieces,...
London: Printed for W. Owen … 1749.
First edition of a compilation of open...
£750
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WHITEHEAD, William.
Plays and Poems … in two Volumes …
London, Printed for J. Dodsley … 1774.
First and only edition of the collected...
£350
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WHITMAN, Walt, and Antonio FRASCONI (illustrator).
A Whitman Portrait.
[New York, Spiral Press, 1960.]
First edition, comprising extracts from...
£250
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WIELAND, Christoph Martin; William SOTHEBY, translator.
Oberon, a Poem ...
London, Cadell and Davies, Edwards, Faulder,...
First octavo edition of Sotheby’s (1757–1833)...
£500
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WISE, Francis.
A Letter to Dr Mead concerning some Antiquities...
Oxford, Printed for Thomas Wood … 1738
First editions. A Letter to Dr Mead...
£350
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[WISHART, George.]
I. G. de rebus auspiciis serenssimi,...
[Amsterdam or The Hague,] 1647.
First edition, rare, a fine-paper copy...
£1750
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WITHER, George.
Speculum Speculativum: or, a Considering-Glasse;...
London, Written June XIII. MDCLX. and...
The third of three editions in the same...
£525
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WOLLSTONECRAFT, Mary.
An Historical and moral View of the Origin...
London, J. Johnson, 1794.
First edition of Wollstonecraft’s eloquent...
£7250
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‘WOODLAND SKETCHES.
With poetical Selections …
Frome. 1836’.
A delightful illustrated manuscript commonplace...
£1250
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WOOLF, Virginia.
Reviewing … with a Note by Leonard Woolf.
London, Hogarth Press, 1939.
First edition of Woolf’s satirical take...
£100
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WOOLLEY, C. Leonard and Thomas Edward LAWRENCE.
The Wilderness of Zin ... With a Chapter...
London: The Alden Press for Jonathan Cape,...
Second English edition. The Wilderness...
£150
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WYCHERLEY, William.
The Posthumous Works … in Prose and Verse....
London: Printed for A. Bettesworth, J....
First edition of an important collection,...
£850
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[YOUNG, Edward.]
The Complaint: or, Night-Thoughts on Life,...
London, R. Dodsley and [T. Cooper; –]...
The first attempt at a collected edition...
£250
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ZACHARIÄ, Just Friedrich Wilhelm.
Les quatre parties du jour, poëme traduit...
Paris, J. B. G. Musier fils, 1769.
First edition in French of this proto-Romantic...
£1500
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ZANCHI, Basilio.
Dictionarium poeticum, et epitheta veterum...
Mons, Luca Rivius, 1612.
Scarce Mons-printed edition of Zanchi’s...
£375
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ZOSIMUS.
The New History of Count Zosimus, sometime...
London, Joseph Hindmarsh, 1684.
First edition of this anonymous translation...
£950