Foreign Literature

Contact Donovan Rees

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. ROMANOV, Panteleimon Sergeevich.

    Rus’ [Russia] …

    Moscow, M. & S. Sabashnikov, 1923–4.

    First edition of the first two parts of...

    £1200

  2. ROMANOV, Panteleimon Sergeevich.

    Pravo na zhizn’ ili problema bespartiinosti...

    [Moscow,] “Molodaia gvardiia”, 1927.

    First edition, containing three stories:...

    £400

  3. ROSINI, Giovanni. 

    Alla memoria di Maria Antinori vedova del...

    Pisa, Niccolò Capurro, 1852. 

    Scarce first and only edition of this poem...

    £275

  4. ROZENGEIM, Mikhail Pavlovich.

    Stikhotvoreniia [Poems] …

    St Petersburg, Artillery Department Press,...

    First edition of Rozengeim’s first book,...

    £2000

  5. RUCELLAI, Giovanni.

    Rosmunda. Tragedia … nuovamente ristampata.

    Florence, Filippo Giunta, 1593.

    Uncommon first edition of Donzellini’s...

    £650

  6. RÜCKERT, Friedrich.

    Die Weisheit des Brahmanen, ein Lehrgedicht...

    Leipzig, Weidmann’sche Buchhandlung, 1836-39.

    First edition of one of the most important...

    £500

  7. RUFIANDER, Fabius Jocosus, pseud. [Friedrich Julius ROTTMANN]. 

    Curiöse Inaugural Disputation von dem...

    ‘Teutschland, Gedruckt in denen Hundes-Tagen,...

    First edition, very rare, of this satirical...

    £675

  8. [RUSSIAN POETRY.]

    Izbrannye stikhi russkikh poetov. Seriia...

    [St Petersburg, Stasiulevich,] 1914.

    First edition of a patriotic anthology...

    £250

  9. SA‘DI, Abu ‘Abd Allah Musharrif al-Din (Adam OLEARIUS, translator). 

    Persianischer Rosenthal.  In welchen viel...

    Schleswig, Johann Holwein for Johann Nauman...

    Rare first illustrated edition, and the...

    £6500

  10. SALINAS, Pedro.

    El Contemplado. Tema con variaciones.

    Mexico, Nueva Fioresta en la Editorial...

    First edition: a set of fifteen poems written...

    £350

  11. SALTYKOV-SHCHEDRIN, Mikhail Yevgrafovich.

    Blagonamerennyia rechi. Tom I [– II]...

    St Petersburg, A.A. Kraevsky, 1876.

    First edition of these social and political...

    £1800

  12. [SAURIN, Bernard-Joseph, attributed.]

    Le nouvel an, pöeme heroī-fou.

    ‘A Brochuro-manie, l’an du deluge...

    An extremely rare satirical tale of two...

    £950

  13. SCARRON, Paul. 

    Le Marquis ridicule, ou la comtesse faite...

    [Leiden, Elzevier], 1656. 

    First Elzevier editions, very rare, of...

    £800

  14. SCHNITZLER, Jean-Henri.

    Rostopchin i Kutuzov. Rossiia v 1812 godu....

    St. Petersburg, “Luch”, 1912

    First edition in Russian of La Russie en...

    £300

  15. SCHUBERT, Franz, composer

    A fine contemporary volume of ten works...

    Vienna, 1821-1833. 

    A rare collection of Schubert Lieder...

    £7500

  16. SELVINSKII, Il’ia Lvovich.

    Rekordy [Records].

    Moscow, “Uzel”, 1926.

    First edition, of Ilya Selvinsky’s (1899–1968)...

    £300

  17. SELVINSKII, Ilia Lvovich.

    Ulialaevshchina: epopeia [The Ulialaev...

    Moscow, Gosizdat “Khudozhestvennaia...

    Fourth edition (first, 1927) of Sel’vinskii’s...

    £100

  18. SHAGINYAN, Marietta Sergeevna.

    O blazhenstve imushchago: poeziia Z.N....

    Moscow, “Al’tsiona”, [1912].

    First edition, a critical essay by Shaginian...

    £350

  19. SHAGINYAN, Marietta Sergeevna.

    Puteshestvie v Veimar [Journey to Weimar].

    Moscow & Petrograd, Gosizdat, 1923.

    First edition of Shaginyan’s account...

    £600

  20. SHAGINYAN, Marietta Sergeevna.

    Gëte [Goethe].

    Moscow and Leningrad, Academy of Sciences...

    First edition of Marietta Sergeevna Shaginyan’s...

    £350