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London : Eveleigh Nash & Grayson, 1927. First edition of this collection of eleven translations of Balzac’s “most spell-binding” stories, including “At the Sign of the Cat and Racket”, “The Unknown Masterpiece”, “The Atheist’s Mass”, etc. Translated variously by Clara Bell, Ellen Marriage and John Gilmer, and edited and introduced by George Saintsbury (1845-1933). “So great are these masterpieces of French fiction that the introduction ... is quite unnecessary. Balzac’s short stories are essentially original and powerful – and tragic. The volume opens with El Verdugo (The Executioner), one of the most powerful of his tales, but The Maranas is undoubtedly the greatest achievement in this excellent collection” (Dundee Courier, 3rd June 1927).
Crown 8vo (191 x 124mm). (548)pp. Bound in an elegant later half green morocco, banded and gilt, for Asprey’s; all edges gilt; silk headbands; marbled endpapers; overall a very good copy.

£250

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London : John Murray, 1851. First edition. Autobiography sliding into fiction and beyond – “a literary curiosity which fascinates as much as it perplexes. An irregular medley of the common and eccentric – of life in its bye paths – of odd vicissitudes in city kens and country forges – of flash and philological scrapings – of balderdash, thimble-rig, slang and psalmody – yet withal most enjoyable – such is Lavengro” (Douglas Jerrold’s Weekly Newspaper, 8th February 1851). “In every respect a remarkable book. We find it difficult to convey to our readers a just notion of its varied attractions – its originality and power – its poetry, piety, philosophy and learning” (Morning Post, 24th February 1851). “There are passages in Lavengro which are unsurpassed in the prose literature of England” (Theodore Watts, in his introduction to the 1893 edition).
Three volumes. Crown 8vo (190 x 117mm). xx,360; (xii),366; (xii),426pp. Portrait frontispiece – engraved by William Holl (1807-1871) from a portrait by Henry Wyndham Phillips (1820-1868). Bound, complete with half-titles, but without the inserted advertisements sometimes found, in an elegant later (early twentieth-century) half green morocco, banded and gilt, by William Root (1846-1924) & Son; top edges gilt; silk ribbons; cloth sides; marbled endleaves; a little sunned; some spotting of endleaves and binder’s blanks; a few very minor internal marks, but a very good set.

£400

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London : for John Murray, 1816. First edition of the third canto: the second issue. “There was a sound of revelry by night ...”, etc.
Demy 8vo (209 x 129mm). [iv],76 [i.e.79],[i]pp. Bound, complete with half-title, in a smart recent binder’s cloth; last leaf a touch dusty, occasional slight spotting, but a very good copy.

£50

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London : John Murray / J. & H. L. Hunt / John Murray, 1823 / 1824 / 1821. Three Byron first editions bound together – “Werner” (the traditional first issue, without “The End” and the printer’s imprint on p.188, Byron’s gothic play set in a ruined castle on the Silesian frontier; the scarce “The Deformed Transformed” – a Faustian pact, and “Marino Faliero” (the traditional first issue, with the shorter speech on p.151) – an indecent libel on the Doge’s wife sets the action in train. The last also contains Byron’s long poem, “The Prophecy of Dante”. Three volumes, bound in one.
Demy 8vo (210 x 128mm). viii,188; 88; (xxii),(262)pp. Bound, without half-titles and advertisements, in contemporary half russia, now neatly rebacked in a stout and workmanlike morocco; marbled sides and edges; some minor external wear; a few leaves lightly bruised, but very good, clean and crisp texts of these three separately published Byron first editions. With the nineteenth-century armorial bookplate of Robert Hutton.

£250

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London : C. Chapple for the author, 1810. First edition. The former mistress of Frederick Duke of York, with a scurrilous exposé leading to trials for libel, pamphlets, caricatures and an outbreak of counter accusations and denials – the Duke was eventually cleared of charges of corruption, although there seems no doubt that Mrs Clarke had been paid for affording the Duke’s patronage to those seeking preferment. Her life was the basis of the novel “Mary Anne” (1954) by her descendant Daphne du Maurier.
Two volumes. Demy 8vo (222 x 127mm). (xii),216; [iv],(308)pp. Engraved portrait frontispiece by Freeman after Adam Buck, with facsimile signature. An uncut copy bound in modern boards; paper labels; covers a little marked and soiled; a few minor internal marks, spots and creases but a good and serviceable copy. Occasional pencil markings of a previous owner.

£100

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London : William Heinemann, 1896. First British edition. His first book, “regarded as the first work of unalloyed naturalism in American fiction” (Milne Holton) and immediately inviting comparison in Europe with Hardy, Zola and Arthur Morrison’s “Tales of Mean Streets”. Originally published under a pseudonym at Crane’s own expense in 1893, and not issued under his own name until after the success of “The Red Badge of Courage” on both sides of the Atlantic. The British edition has a telling introduction by William Dean Howells (1837-1920) – “the girl herself, with her bewildered wish to be right and good, with her distorted perspective, her clinging and generous affections, her hopeless environments”.
Foolscap 8vo (17cm). (viii),(148),4pp. Original decorative navy buckram gilt; top edge gilt; endpapers a little tanned; a touch shaken; a few minor marks and spots, but overall a very good copy. With the dated (October 1896) ownership inscription and armorial bookplate of Walter Wren (1833-1898), briefly a radical Member of Parliament and later a member of the first London County Council.

£125

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London : Henry Frowde, 1905. First edition. “Dust and Wind”, “Ode on the Death of Dickens”, two hymns and seven other poems, selected and edited by Robert Bridges, who also contributes a memorial preface.
Crown 8vo (19cm). (xvi),(40)pp. Portrait frontispiece. Original blue-white weave linen, ruled in blind on upper and lower covers, and lettered across upper cover and spine in gilt; spine just a touch dulled and with two tiny marks; occasional slight browning and spotting, but a very good copy.

£40

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London : Addey & Co., 1853. First British edition. A book heralded as the first genuine children’s novel set in California – and a cracking tale of the California Gold Rush as young Sam Gilman accompanies his father to San Francisco, where they arrive by sea on the Fourth of July. First published in New York earlier that year with the additional sub-title, “The Young Californian”.
Foolscap 8vo (166 x 100mm). [ii],(9)-214pp – pagination irregular, but collates as the British Library copy. Engraved frontispiece by Dalziel and title-page on plate paper. Bound in a stylish, perhaps French, half polished tan calf, delicately gilt on spine; marbled sides; red edges; just a touch rubbed; hairline split at head of upper joint, but solid and sound; a few minor marks and spots, but a very good and attractive copy. Blank ex-libris label covering an earlier ownership inscription.

£150

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London : Strahan & Co., 1872. A striking binding design, clearly stamped “second edition” diagonally across the spines, although the contents are equally clearly the first edition sheets – even the errata leaf is unchanged. The only alteration would appear to be that the final contents page in the first volume is now numbered “iii” (wrongly). Presumably the binding was doctored by the publishers to boost flagging sales after some fairly strenuous advance publicity, although I am unable to recall ever having seen a comparable example of this kind of reissue, with a fresh and false edition statement on the binding. Having been trailed in the press since October, the book was published 13th December 1871 (although dated for the following year). This “second edition” was announced as early as 16th January 1872 – just a day after the British Museum received its copyright copy in the unaltered binding. The anonymous author of this fascinating novel was himself to become a radical M.P. in 1874. The tale of a radicalised heir to an earldom, as well as London squares, Scottish moors, and Midland mines – “A very clever, and occasionally rather malicious, satire on the politics and the politicians of our time. Yet in the main the author’s arrows are launched fairly and hit the right mark” – Prigs and Whigs, Fogies and Tories, outspoken young women, the Radish Club, a “rank communist” , religion and radicalism – “many happy passages ... many brilliant epigrams ... It would not be difficult to find the originals of most of the characters in this tale” (Sun & Central Press, 27th December 1871).
Two volumes. Crown 8vo (20cm). iii [but viii],[2],(204); vi,230pp. Original pebble-grain tan cloth, lettered in gilt and ruled diagonally in black; some very minor wear; a few slight spots; just a touch shaken, but otherwise a very good set. Loosely inserted are some interesting biographical notes on the author, etc.

£200

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London : Henry Colburn, 1841. First edition. Lauder’s second collection of carefully preserved highland legends – a world of warlocks, water-kelpies, dominies and fighting men, with the Legend of the Clan-Allen Stewarts, etc.
Three volumes. Post 8vo (195 x 118mm). xxiv,292; [vi],294; [vi],(324)pp. Six etched plates by “Phiz” (Hablot Knight Browne). Bound in an attractive contemporary half red calf, with green labels, banded and gilt; marbled edges and endpapers; some mild rubbing and some occasional internal marking and spotting; plates spotted, but overall still a very good set.

SOLD

London : Field & Tuer, The Leadenhall Press, [1886]. First edition. “I am only a little girl, but I have my thoughts, and I have plenty of time for thinking them, as I am a great deal alone ... when I am not by myself I am with grown-up people, and it is their ways which puzzle me”. A celebrated Victorian spoof, complete with chapters on Afternoon Tea, Juvenile Parties, Serious Thoughts and How to Get a Book Printed, and with its own “home-made” binding. “Little girls’ eyes and ears are proverbially sharp; but, luckily for domestic peace, they are rarely so keen as this particular little girl’s. What she has to say of the shams and pretences of society, as she sees it, is often amusing from its spice of truth. The style too, in its affected innocence, is decidedly smart” (St. James’s Gazette, 25th November 1886).
Crown 4to (23cm). 102,[ii]pp. Line illustrations in text. Original boards; covered in a floral patterned cloth, with sewn ties, ostensibly by the author herself and lots of little factory girls; paper title label; cloth worn and discoloured in places; endpapers a little spotted and tanned; some occasional internal marks and mild spotting; one leaf slightly torn, not affecting text, but a serviceable copy of an unusual and highly entertaining title.

£50

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Cambridge : Macmillan & Co., 1861. First edition : one of the 2,000 copies of the first impression, with the roman rather than gothic half-title, just four notes on p.323, etc. The original appearance of a perennial favourite – close on 300 of the finest poems in the language from seventy-five or so poets – from Sir Thomas Wyatt, Marlowe and Shakespeare, to Shelley and Keats. With a preface and some extensive notes by Palgrave.
Foolscap 8vo. [4],[viii],332pp. Engraved vignette by Charles Henry Jeens (1827-1879) after Thomas Woolner (1825-1892). Bound in a smart recent half crimson morocco, banded and gilt – retaining the original cloth gilt (the priced, earliest variant) at rear; a handful of spots, a small flaw to the final leaf, but a very good copy. Contemporary ownership inscription on title-page and some neat pencil markings to margins in places.

£400

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London : David Nutt, 1910. First edition. The first publication of three Peacock plays discovered among the manuscripts acquired by the British Museum in 1903 – “The Dilettanti”, “The Circle of Loda” and “The Three Doctors”. Edited and introduced by Peacock’s biographer, Arthur Button Young (1877-1960).
Pott 4to (16cm). [2],(xiv),(158),[ii]pp. Original red cloth, ruled and blocked in blind and lettered in gilt; top edge gilt; lightly rubbed and a little dull; endpapers a little tanned, but a good and partly unopened copy. Contemporary pencilled ownership inscription of H. J. Marshal, with some further pencilled annotation and underlining to the first play, suggestive of it having been used for a production.

£50

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Edinburgh : Archibald Constable & Co., 1826. First edition. Scott in the thick of the Civil War – Cromwell, Charles II, etc. Written rapidly to earn his way out of financial difficulties, the reviewers found the novel flawed and occasionally wayward in its history, but it became a huge commercial success and remains one of his most popular titles.
Three volumes. Crown 8vo (190 x 121mm). xvi,(316); [ii],332; [ii],370pp. With the two cancel-leaves reported by Worthington in all copies examined – the title-page to vol.i and leaf L4 in vol.iii (the latter in second state). Bound (without half-titles) in a neat near contemporary silk-cloth, leather labels; a little sunned, some minor wear, occasional slight spotting, but otherwise a very good set. With the armorial “Fide et Constantia” bookplate of William John Lee in each volume.

£100

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London : Frank Palmer, (1913). First edition in English of “I Hafsbandet” (1890). Strindberg’s novel of isolation and resistance – a clever outsider arrives at a remote village in the archipelago as the Superintendent of Fisheries. Translated by Ellie Schleussner. “This is a book of strange power, and it gives rise to strange thoughts, imaginings, and feelings. The usually placid reader will feel distinctly uncomfortable before he reaches the end, and the end may perhaps shock him. It reads like a frontal attack on woman and Christianity” (Pall Mall Gazette, 30th July 1913).
Crown 8vo (19cm). 324pp. Original pictorial cloth, gilt and enamelled; just a touch sunned; some spotting to endpapers and prelims, but a very good copy. Contemporary gift inscription dated Christmas 1913.

£200

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London : Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., 1903. A handsome and lavishly produced edition of Surtees’ classic of sporting humour, produced for the Trübner Sporting Library series. John Jorrocks originally surfaced in the “New Sporting Magazine” in 1831, and first appeared in book form in 1838, but here appears with the original illustrations from all the various early editions – by Henry Alken, “Phiz” and William Heath – including an Alken illustration previously unpublished. With an interesting introduction on the history of the book and its illustrations by Joseph Grego (1843-1908), noted authority on illustration and its techniques.
Super royal 8vo (258 x 172mm). xxii,(356)pp. Frontispiece, extra pictorial title, twenty-nine tissue-guarded plates – twenty-two with original hand colour – and nine illustrations in text. Bound in an elegant contemporary half red crushed morocco for Hatchard’s; banded and gilt; top edge gilt; marbled endleaves; a few very minor signs of age and use; some spotting to text, but otherwise a very good copy indeed. Dated 1906 gift inscription from Alwyn(e) Ainsworth Crossley (1881-1933) to S. M. Crossley – presumably his widowed mother, Sarah Maude Crossley (1847-1938).

£200

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London : Smith, Elder & Co., 1892. First edition. An early novel of faith and doubt from the sterling Mrs Humphry Ward, Tasmanian-born grand-daughter of Dr. Arnold of Rugby. “Though the book is by no means sensational, its violent death-rate is very high. We hear of at least three deaths by accident, and two by suicide, while the mortality is heightened by two cases of cancer, one of consumption, and one of diphtheria. The boy and girl pass through a very rough childhood” (Pall Mall Gazette, 22nd January 1892) – for all that, the novel proved popular with the public, reaching a tenth edition by July 1894.
Three volumes. Crown 8vo (20cm). [xii],388; [viii],388; [viii],396pp. Original cloth, lettered and blocked in gilt and blind; very short split to lower joint of vol.i; a little sunned; the patterned endpapers a little tanned; preliminary blank neatly removed from vol.i; but still a clean and pleasant-looking set. Pencilled ownership inscriptions of Cyril D. Fitzroy, dated Oxford 1905 – this Cyril Duncombe Fitzroy (1861-1939), an Inspector of Schools for Art Instruction. Sadleir 3288. Wolff 7017.

£100

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London : Sherwood, Jones, & Co., 1823. First edition. “Laughter, says a merry wag of our times ... is, next to breathing, the most important business of the lungs”. The colourful Westmacott, “journalist and blackmailer”, as the ODNB has it, with a highly entertaining exploration of the miseries of authorcraft, of the mind, of travelling by coach, of the miseries of London, walking in London, London lodging houses, of love and matrimony, of borrowing, and of living too fast. Bound in are a specimen front and rear wrapper from the original partwork publication, one with the pasted-over bookseller’s label of Jennett of Belfast.
Royal 8vo (249 x 155mm). (viii),(98)pp – a handful of copies (e.g. Cambridge University Library) are recorded with an additional leaf, but this would appear to be atypical. Ten lively plates, some with tissue guards, and ten illustrations by the gifted Robert Cruikshank (1789-1856). Bound in are two smaller format publishers’ catalogues of eight and sixteen pages respectively, the latter dated August 1823. Bound in a contemporary half calf, with later red label, now neatly restored at extremities; top edge gilt; marbled sides; some light rubbing and wear; some occasional marks, spots and small areas of discolouration, but a good copy of an entertaining read.

£200

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London : Charles Dickens & Evans, 1873. First edition. The younger Charles Dickens revives his father’s Christmas Numbers – pictures come to life in a German castle and tell their dreadful stories – “An introductory chapter to connect the tales, and a concluding one to wind them up. The five tales are all very good ... Altogether we should be puzzled to name any Christmas number of All the Year Round fuller of amusement and enthralling incidents than will be found here, and we commend it heartily” (The Era, 14th December 1873). The framing story is by Edmund Yates, friend of Dickens, foe of Thackeray, and occasionally compared to Trollope – eliciting the famous “That’s not very high praise” remark by Dickens. Yates may also have written some, if not all, of the other chapters.
Royal 8vo (25cm). 48pp. With three flyers on coloured paper for insurance companies loosely inserted. Original blue wrappers, ruled and lettered in black; lightly worn and a little creased; some mild spotting, but a good and bright copy of a fragile production.

£25

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London : Macmillan & Co., 1880. First edition. “There is always a pleasurable feeling of expectation in opening a new novel by Miss Yonge and that lady’s many admirers need not be told that there is a certainty of more or less satisfaction from anything she writes” (Morning Post, 14th September 1880). A lost inheritance, a secret love – Major Delavie and his three daughters encounter the wonderfully villainous Lady Belamour.
Two volumes. Crown 8vo (20cm). [viii],288; [viii],304pp. Original green cloth, ruled and lettered in gilt, and blocked in black; a little rubbed and worn; endpapers cracking; a little slack; a few internal marks, nicks and spots, but a good and serviceable cloth set.

£125

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