"If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all. "
— Oscar Wilde
Results
The Riverside Villas Murder.
London: Jonathan Cape, 1973. [Mystery] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (20 x 14cm), pp.224. Publisher's green cloth with gilt titles to spine, coloured endpapers, top edge green. With the dust-jacket illustrated by Ian Beck. Some minor dustiness to fore-edge else a fine, fresh copy. An old-fashioned whodunit, set in the 1930s... More
The Disputed Crown. A Novel of Eleventh Century England.
London: Chatto and Windus, 1982. [Historical Fiction] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (22 x 15cm), pp.xxii; 297; [1]. Publisher's brown cloth with silver titles to spine. With the brown dust-jacket reproducing an image from the Bayeux tapestry. Some spotting to top edge and a very slight reading lean. A crisp, clean near..... More
Gildenford.
London: Chatto and Windus, 1978. [Historical Fiction] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (22 x 15cm), pp.[10]; 323; [3]. Publisher's red cloth with gilt titles to spine. With the dust-jacket illustrated by Walter Hodges. Some spotting to top edge, otherwise a crisp, clean, near fine copy. The author's first novel, set in the..... More
Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales with Pictures that Spring to Life. Bookano Series.
London: Strand Publications, no date [circa 1938]. [Pop-Up Fairy Tales] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (22 x 18cm), pp.[62]. With four colour-illustrated pop-up scenes, a colour frontispiece and vignette title page, and several line-drawn illustrations, all by Wickham, and design and arrangement by Giraud. Publisher's colour illustrated paper-covered boards, with endpapers illustrated..... More
Tea and Sympathy. A Drama in Three Acts.
London: Heinemann, 1957. [American Drama] FIRST UK EDITION. Octavo (20 x 13cm), pp.159 [1]. With a frontispiece photograph of a scene from the 1956 film starring Deborah and John Kerr. Publisher's light green cloth with white titles to spine. With the pink and blue typographic dust-jacket designed by Leslie Needham..... More
Family Secrets. or hints to those who would make home happy.
London: Fisher, Son and Co., no date [1843]. [Literature] ILLUSTRATED Three volumes, octavo (21 x 14 x 8cm). Brown half calf over brown cloth sides, gilt titles on darker brown calf squares to spine. Each volume with an engraved frontispiece and half title page plus another twenty-five plates spread between..... More
L'Historien Vertueux ou le Modele de l'Adolescence et de la Jeunesse. Dedie au jeune age.
Paris: Louis Janet, 1822. Sextodecimo. Bound in beige paper boards, all edges gilt. Binding shows wear, particularly to corners and spine ends. Text shows some spotting, including to illustrations. A calendar is printed at the rear. The title of one notable and worryingly un-ironic plate is, roughly translated, "The charity..... More
The Metropolis. And the Second Part of the Metropolis.
Dublin: John Barlow, 1805 and 1806. SECOND EDITION. Duodecimo. pp. 69, 87. In recent marbled paper-covered boards with navy titles to cream paper label on spine. Top right corner of title page to part two damaged and repaired. Text unaffected. Otherwise a near-fine example in an attractive new binding. An..... More
Streetwalker.
London: The Bodley Head, 1959. [Social history] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (20 x 13 cm), pp.191; [1]. Publisher's black cloth with gilt titles to spine, dust-wrapper with printed price of 12s 6d. Slight toning to edges of textblock, minor rubbing at head and tail of spine, dust-wrapper is slightly chipped with..... More
The Song of Songs.
London: Collins, 1973. [Erotica] FIRST THUS. Small quarto (28 x 21cm), pp.[6] 16 [34]. With frequent line drawings by Erni. Publisher's black cloth with gilt titles to spine, and gilt decoration to upper. With the illustrated dust-jacket, priced at £2.95. A fine copy with just a hint of light handling..... More
Beowulf. Translated into Modern English Rhyming Verse, with Introduction and Notes.
London: Constable and Company, 1925. [Old English Literature] FIRST STRONG TRANSLATION. Octavo (22 x 16cm), pp.lii; 100 [4]. Publisher's orange cloth with gilt titles to spine. Fore and lower edges untrimmed. Illustrated bookplate of Clifford L. Platt to front pastedown. Light wear to cloth. Very good. More
The Club Cricketer. Hints by "Cricketer" of the Manchester Guardian.
Manchester: Manchester Guardian, n.d. FIRST PUBLICATION OF CARDUS. Slim octavo, pp.3 [ads]; 54. Bound in publisher's orange paper covers with illustration of cricketer to front panel. Includes diagrams and charming contemporary advertisements for golfing trousers, etc. Shows very well, excepting one crease to rear of pamphlet which continues into contents..... More
Literary Characters.
London: Jonathan Cape, 1954. [Literary Offprint] ORIGINAL PAMPHLET. Octavo (19 x 13cm), pp.32. INSCRIBED in black ink to inside of cover on behalf of the publisher. Publisher's plain paper covers with woodcut illustrations, bound with thick brown string. Lightly toned and spotted. Browning to spine and outer edges, with some..... More
Sam Sheridan: The Secret Service Special, or, the jamboree at "Early Bird" bar. The Aldine "Boys' First-Rate Pocket Library." No. 178.
London: Aldine Publishing Company, n.d. [1893]. ORIGINAL PAMPHLET. Octavo, pp.32. In original colour illustrated paper covers. text heavily browned and extremely brittle. Some chips to leaf edges. Covers much less brittle, also chipped in places. Spine reinforced with archival tape. Good considering paper stock. More
Tales of the Classics: A New Delineation of the Most Popular Fables, Legends, and Allegories commemorated in the works of Poets, Painters, and Sculptors. Selected and Written by a Lady, for the amusement and instruction of her own daughters.
London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, 1830. [Greek Mythology] FINELY BOUND FIRST EDITION. Complete in three volumes. Octavo (19 x 13cm), pp.[4] xxiv; 302 [4]; pp.[4] iv; 302 [4]; pp.[4] iv; 370 [4]. Contemporary black half calf with raised bands, gilt titles to burgundy labels, further gilt decoration to spines..... More
The Wonderful Discoverie of the Witchcrafts of Margaret and Phillip Flower, daughters of Joan Flower neere Beuer Castle: executed at Lincolne, March 11. 1618. Who were specially arraigned & condemned before Sir Henry Hobart, and Sir Edward Bromley, Judges of Assize, for confessing themselues actors in the destruction of Henry, Lord Rosse, with their damnable practices against others the Children of the Right Honourable Francis Earle of Rutland. Together with the seuerall Examinations and Confessions of Anne Baker, Ioan Willimot, and Ellen Greene, Witches in Leicestershire.
Leicester: Vance Harvey Publishing; 1970. [Witch Trials] FACSIMILE EDITION. Octavo (22 x 14cm), pp.26 [20]. With a woodcut vignette title page. A facsimile of a Victorian edition, circa 1841, limited to 500 copies, including the alarmingly large publisher's catalogue. Publisher's brown hard covers reproducing the title page to upper. Light..... More
The Talking Horse and Other Stories.
London: Smith, Elder, and co., 1893. Presentation Copy, "New Edition". Octavo. Bound in publisher's red cloth, with panelling embossed in black to boards, titles to front board, and titles in gilt to spine. Binding is rubbed, with noticable fading to spine; somewhat shaken, linen visible in joint at p.1, and..... More
The Brass Bottle. Daily Mail Sixpenny Novels No. 84.
London: The Amalgamated Press, with Smith, Elder and Co., for the Daily Mail, no date [circa 1915]. [Strange Tales] SIXPENNY NOVEL. Octavo (21 x 15cm), pp.144. With a frontispiece, decorated title page, and two further illustrated plates by Brock. Publisher's colour-illustrated paper covers. Quite heavily browned throughout. Final leaf of..... More
Dead Man's Bay.
London: Published for the Crime Club by Collins, 1959. [Mystery Thriller] FIRST UK EDITION. Octavo (19 x 13cm), pp.160. Publisher's red cloth with black titles to spine. With the green and black dust-jacket priced at 10/6. Light offsetting to endpapers and some browning to edges. Jacket toned and chipped to..... More
The Secret Trail A Jimmie Rezaire Story.
London, Methuen 1928. A Secret Service thriller. FIRST EDITION. Octavo, pp256. Publisher's hardcover in dustwrapper. A very good copy with owner name, loss to jacket at base of spine affecting imprint, faded beneath at same, one or two other minor nicks or tears (one taped at rear) spine sunned. A...... More
Poetical Works of Matthew Arnold.
London: Macmillan, 1913. [Poetry]. Octavo (20 x 14cm), pp.[xii]; 510. Riviere binding of contemporary brown half morocco over purple cloth boards, with raised bands, gilt title and extra gilt to spine, top edge gilt, marbled endpapers. Presentation note to "Miss D.M. Lapage", the commandant of the Kent 142 Volunteer Ambulance..... More
The Light of Asia or The Great Renunciation. Being the Life and Teaching of Gautama, Prince of India and Founder of Buddhism.
London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Co., 1908. Deluxe Edition. Octavo, pp.xv; 158. Illustrated with thirty two pictures of Indian scenery from photographs taken by Mabel Eardley-Wilmott. Bound in cream vegetable parchment boards with gilt titles to spine and upper board, and illustrated to the upper and lower boards. Top..... More
The Blind Assassin.
New York, NY: Nan A. Talese, 2000. [Modern Literature] SIGNED FIRST US EDITION. Octavo (24 x 17cm), pp.[18] 521 [5]. SIGNED by the author in black ink to title page. Publisher's quarter brown cloth, with gilt titles to spine, tan paper over boards, and green endpaper. Fore-edge untrimmed. With the..... More
The Country Cousin.
London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1978. SIGNED First Edition. Octavo. pp. 239. In publisher's red cloth with gilt titles to spine. With original dust jacket featuring a very light monochrome image of a man sitting at a desk next to closed blinds. Brown and red titles. Inscribed to recto of front..... More