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.
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HERNÁNDEZ, Miguel.
Viento del pueblo. Poesia en la guerra.
Valencia, Ediciones ‘Socorro Rojo’, 1937.
First edition of a scarce collection of Civil War poems by the ‘soldier-poet’ Miguel Hernández, our copy from the library of Stephen Spender, who met Hernández in Madrid in the summer of 1937 and would champion and translate his work.
£1750
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[HERZEN, Aleksandr Ivanovich]. ISKANDER (pseud.).
Prervannye razskazy… Izdanie vtoroe - ispravlennoe avtorom [Interrupted...
London, Trübner & Co., 1857.
Second, corrected edition of this collection of four short stories, which had initially been published in Russian periodicals, and were first collected and published as one volume in London in 1854.
£1250
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HESSE, Hermann.
Das Glasperlenspiel.
Zurich, Fretz und Wasmuth Verlag, 1943.
First edition of Hesse's last, quintessential work. It occupied him for eleven years, and was published in 1943, the year in which Hesse's name was placed on the black-list of authors in Germany.
£750
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HESSE, Hermann.
Frühe Prosa.
Zurich, Fretz & Wasmuth, [1948].
First edition of this collection, with new prefatory material by Hesse himself. It brings together three prose works from before the publication of Peter Camenzind (1904): Eine Stude hinter Mitternacht (1899), Der Novalis (written 1899–1902, published 1907), and Hermann...
£100
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HESSE, Hermann.
Siddhartha. Eine indische Dichtung.
Berlin, S. Fischer Verlag, 1922.
First edition of Hesse’s most celebrated work, the beautiful story of a young Brahmin’s search for the meaning of life on earth at the time of the Gautama Buddha. It is considered by many to be Hesse’s masterpiece, and its English translation in the 1950s became a spiritual guide to the generation...
£1200
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HOFMANNSTHAL, Hugo von.
Die Aegyptische Helena. Oper in zwei Aufzügen.
[Leipzig, Mainzer Presse for Insel-Verlag, 1928.]
First edition of Hofmannsthal’s text for Richard Strauss’s opera – Hofmannsthal himself considered it to be his finest libretto. The opera was first performed on 6 June 1928 in Dresden, five weeks before Hofmannsthal’s death. The plot is a free adaptation of Euripides’ Helena, which introduces...
£750
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HUGO, Victor.
Notre-Dame de Paris. Par Victor Hugo. Troisième edition … Tome premier [– deuxième].
Paris, Charles Gosselin, 1831.
First edition, third issue, of Victor Hugo’s great historical novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame, one of 275 copies printed.
£7500
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IVANOV, Georgii Vladimirovich.
Lampada. Sobranie stikhotvorenii, Kniga pervaia [The icon-lamp. Collected poems. Book one (All...
Petrograd, [“Mysl’”], 1922.
First edition of Ivanov’s last collection of poems before his emigration.
£300
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IVANOV, Viacheslav Ivanovich.
Mladenchestvo [Infancy].
St Petersburg, “Alkonost”, 1918.
First edition. The poet, translator, critic and scholar Vyacheslav Ivanov (1866–1949) was one of the leaders of the Symbolist movement and its principal theorist.
£600
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IVANOV, Viacheslav Ivanovich.
Prometei. Tragediia [Prometheus. A tragedy].
St Petersburg, “Alkonost”, 1919.
First edition of Ivanov’s dramatic poem Prometheus, which follows the form of Greek tragedy. The plot is a restatement of classical myth in terms of Ivanov’s Neoplatonic philosophy.
£250
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IVANOV, Vsevolod Viacheslavovich, and Viktor Borisovich SHKLOVSKII.
Iprit. Roman. Vypusk I [– IX] [Mustard Gas. A novel....
Moscow, Gosizdat, [1925].
First edition, a complete set of a rare satirical science fiction novel, issued serially.
£2500
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JABÈS, Edmond.
Trois filles de mon quartier. [Paris], G. L.
M., [1948].
First edition: one of 340 numbered copies, of which this is one of 300 on Alfama.
£350
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JABÈS, Edmond.
Le Livre des Questions.
[Paris], Gallimard, [1963].
First edition. This is the first of what was to become a series of seven books under this title published between 1963 and 1973: ‘the centrepiece of Jabès’s oeuvre’ (Stoddard). 20 numbered copies were printed on pur fil; ours is one of the unnumbered copies on ordinary paper.
£300
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JABÈS, Edmond.
El, Ou le dernier livre.
[Paris], Gallimard, [1973].
First edition, one of 40 numbered copies on vélin pur fil.
£300
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JABÈS, Edmond.
Le Livre des ressemblances.
[Paris], Gallimard, [1976].
First edition, one of 20 numbered copies on vélin d’Arches Arjomari Prioux.
£300
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JABÈS, Edmond.
L’Obscurité potable.
[Paris], G.L.M., 1936.
Rare first edition of this early collection of poems, published when Jabès was just 24: one of a limited edition of 212 copies, of which this is one of 12 on Hollande Pannekeok.
£750
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JABÈS, Edmond.
Trois filles de mon quartier.
[Paris], G. L. M., [1948].
First edition: one of 340 numbered copies, of which this is one of 15 on vélin du Marais.
£550
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JABÈS, Edmond.
La clef de voûte.
[Paris], G.L.M., [1950].
First edition: one of 400 numbered copies, of which this is one of 20 on vélin du Marais.
£550
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JABÈS, Edmond.
Yaël.
[Paris], Gallimard, [1967].
First edition, one of 30 numbered copies on vélin pur fil.
£500