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.

 
  1. AKHMATOVA, Anna Andreevna, translator.

    Голоса поэтов. Стихи зарубежных...

    Moscow, “Progress”, 1965.

    First edition of Akhmatova’s translations...

    £450

  2. ALBERTI, Rafael.

    13 Bandas y 48 estrellas. Poema del Mar Caribe.

    Madrid, Manuel Altolaguirre, 1936.

    First edition. ‘The thirteen poems collected...

    £650

  3. ALBERTI, Rafael.

    Cal y canto.

    Madrid, Revista de Occidente, [1929].

    First edition of Alberti’s fourth...

    £1100

  4. ALBERTI, Rafael.

    De los Alamos y los sauces.

    [Buenos Aires], Ediciones del Angel Gulab,...

    First edition of this collection of...

    £400

  5. ‘ALEICHEM, Sholem’, pseud. [Solomon Naumovich RABINOVICH].

    Sholom Aleikhem. Perevod s evreiskago S....

    St Petersburg, M.G. Kornfel’d, 1911.

    Very rare first edition in Russian of...

    £2000

  6. ALEIXANDRE, Vicente.

    Historia del Corazón.

    Madrid, Espasa-Calpe, 1954.

    First edition of this important work...

    £300

  7. ALEKSANDROVA, Zinaida and Dmitry GORLOV.

    Мишкины соседи [Little...

    Moscow, VLKSM Izdatelstvo Detskoi Literaturi,...

    First edition. A very nice copy...

    £350

  8. [ALMANACK.]

    Al’manakh dlia vsekh. Kniga vtoraia [Almanack...

    St Petersburg, “Novyi zhurnal dlia vsekh”,...

    First edition, rare, the second of two...

    £200

  9. ANDREEV, Leonid Nikolaevich.

    Tsar Golod. Predstavlenie v piati kartinakh...

    [St Petersburg,] ‘Shipovnik’, 1908.

    First edition of this play by one of...

    £800

  10. APUKHTIN, Aleksei Nikolaevich.

    Stikhotvoreniia [Poems].

    St Petersburg, F.S. Sushchinsky, 1886.

    First edition of Apukhtin’s first...

    £750

  11. ARISTOPHANES.

    Aristophanis comicorum principis Comoediae...

    Venice, 1542 [colophon: apud D. Jacob...

    First collected Latin edition of Aristophanes,...

    £1200

  12. ARNIGIO, Bartolomeo. 

    Rime dell’Arnigio per la ill[ustre] signora...

    Brescia, Giovanni Battista Bozzola, 1566. 

    First edition of Bartolomeo Arnigio’s...

    £1750

  13. ASCHEHOUG, Torkel Halvorsen.

    Social-økonomik: en videnskabelig fremstilling...

    Christiania, H. Aschehoug, 1903–1908.

    First edition of a systematic handbook...

    £350

  14. AVGERINOS, Hypatios.

    Πονηµατα δραµατικα. [Ponemata...

    Trieste, Austrian Lloyd, 1849.

    Very rare first edition of Avgerinos’...

    £750

  15. AZAÏS, Gabriel, and Charles LABOR.

    Illustrated manuscript volume of poetry,...

    Béziers, not before 1836.

    A charming presentation volume, with...

    £1750

  16. AZORÍN, pseud. [José MARTINEZ RUIZ].

    Castilla.

    Madrid, Revista de Archivos, 1912.

    First edition, an important collection...

    £450

  17. BABEL’, Isaak Emmanuilovich.

    ...

    Leningrad, “Academia”, 1928.

    First edition, from the ‘Academia’...

    £250

  18. BAL’MONT, Konstantin Dmitrievich.

    Iz Mirovoi Poezii [From the world’s poetry].

    [Berlin], “Slovo”, 1921.

    First edition: Bal’mont’s translations...

    £50

  19. BALZAC, Honoré de, and Fedor Kuz’mich SOLOGBUB, pseud. [Fedor TETERNIKOV], translator.

    Ozornye skazki [Contes drolatiques]…

    Petersburg, “Poliarnaia Zvezda”, 1922.

    First edition, very rare, of Sologub’s...

    £500