Literature
Rare and first edition literature from Peter Harrington. On our shelves you'll discover rare poetry, English, American & modern literature, pre-1900 rare books, plays, world literature and much more.
From the blog: Nightingales and Roses: The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
Video: [PUTTENHAM, George.] The Arte of English Poesie. 1589.
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MANN, Thomas. Death in Venice.London : 1928
First edition in English. This novella was written in 1912 and published in Germany under the title Der Tod in Venedig. This edition also includes the novellas Tristan and Tonio Kröger. Learn More£1,500.00Stock Code: 125441
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KOESTLER, Arthur. Darkness At Noon.London : 1940
First edition, first impression. Learn More£2,000.00Stock Code: 125637
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BRONTË, Charlotte, as Currer Bell. Villette.London : 1853
First edition of Charlotte Brontë's third novel, the last to be published in her lifetime. Learn More£4,500.00Stock Code: 125261
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HAGGARD, H. Rider. King Solomon's Mines.London : 1885
First edition, first impression. With all the textual misprints: p. 10, "Bamamgwato"; p. 122 3rd line up "let twins to live"; p. 307 footnote, last line, "Wrod." Surprisingly scarce in the correct state. King Solomon's Mine "met with instant success" (ODNB) and is considered to be the foundation of the "Lost World" science fiction genre. Learn More£3,500.00Stock Code: 124633
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RACKHAM, Arthur (illus.); GRIMM Brothers. Grimm's Fairy Tales.New York : 1909
Large paper copy, signed by the artist to the verso of the half-title. Learn More£3,750.00Stock Code: 124151
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WEST, Nathaniel. The Day of the Locust.New York : 1939
First edition, first printing. Learn More£2,250.00Stock Code: 124045
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![[The Alexandria Quartet:] Justine; Balthazar; Mountolive; Clea.](https://d3dzzbbvj9im7s.cloudfront.net/media/catalog/product/cache/ae0834d12b7cf129fc73bcc000ea526a/1/2/121818.jpg)
DURRELL, Lawrence. [The Alexandria Quartet:] Justine; Balthazar; Mountolive; Clea.London : 1957-60
First editions, first impressions. Perhaps Durrell's greatest success, a study of love and political intrigue in Alexandria, Egypt, before and during World War II. Learn More£5,000.00Stock Code: 121818
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LEE, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird.Philadelphia : 1960
First edition, first printing. To Kill a Mockingbird became an immediate bestseller and won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. It is "an authentic and nostalgic story which in rare fashion at once puts together the tenderness and the tragedy of the South. They are the inseparable ingredients of a region much reported but seldom so well understood"... Learn More£6,750.00Stock Code: 121366
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WHITE, Patrick. The Living and The Dead.London : 1941
First UK edition. The author's second novel and one of the great rarities of 20th century Australian literature. Learn More£2,250.00Stock Code: 120928
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MAUGHAM, William Somerset. The Razor's Edge.London : 1944
First UK edition, first impression. Learn More£1,375.00Stock Code: 118505
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GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ, Gabriel. One Hundred Years of Solitude.New York : 1970
First edition in English, first printing. It was first published in Argentina in 1967 under the title Cien años de soledad. Learn More£1,500.00Stock Code: 115474
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![[Complete detective novels:] Red Harvest; The Dain Curse; The Maltese Falcon; The Glass Key; The Thin Man.](https://d3dzzbbvj9im7s.cloudfront.net/media/catalog/product/cache/ae0834d12b7cf129fc73bcc000ea526a/1/1/116919.jpg)
HAMMETT, Dashiell. [Complete detective novels:] Red Harvest; The Dain Curse; The Maltese Falcon; The Glass Key; The Thin Man.New York & London : 1929-34
First editions, first printings, of the complete series of Hammett's seminal full-length detective novels. As usual The Glass Key is the first American edition; the first impression was printed in London in the same year during Knopf's ill-fated attempt to break into the British market and is scarce. Learn More£12,500.00Stock Code: 116919
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HAWTHORNE, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter,Boston : 1850
First edition, first issue: with the advertisements dated "March 1, 1850" and the misprint "reduplicate" for "repudiate" at line 20 page 21. Learn More£2,000.00Stock Code: 117377
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ELIOT, T. S. Four Quartets.New York : [c.1945]
Inscribed by the author on the title page "Inscribed for Allen Hawkridge by T. S. Eliot 7. vi. 47." The four poems which make up Four Quartets ("Burnt Norton", "East Coker", "The Dry Salvages" and "Little Gidding") were published separately between 1940 and 1941; this is a later printing of the first collected edition, which was published in the US... Learn More£3,750.00Stock Code: 114849
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THOMAS, Dylan. Under Milk Wood. A Play for Voices.London : 1954.
First edition, first impression. Learn More£1,375.00Stock Code: 113551
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FLAUBERT, Gustave. Madame Bovary.London : 1886
First edition in English of Flaubert's masterpiece. The translator was Karl Marx's daughter, then living openly with Edward Bibbens Aveling, a married man whose name she used in conjunction with her own. Flaubert's debut novel was five years in the making, and originally serialised in the Revue de Paris. It provoked charges of obscenity and immorality... Learn More£2,500.00Stock Code: 114497
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SHUTE, Nevil. Marazan.London : 1926
First edition, first impression, of the author's first book. Learn More£1,375.00Stock Code: 112480
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CHURCHILL, Winston S. Thoughts and Adventures.London : 1932
First edition, first impression. The second volume of Churchill's autobiographical writings, covering his early political career, the battle of Sidney Street, a near silence on Gallipoli, service on the Western Front, the negotiation of the Irish settlement, thoughts on the "Mass effects of modern life" and life "Fifty years hence". A collection of... Learn More£2,000.00Stock Code: 109106
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![[The complete Hornblower:]](https://d3dzzbbvj9im7s.cloudfront.net/media/catalog/product/cache/ae0834d12b7cf129fc73bcc000ea526a/1/0/109292.jpg)
FORESTER, C. S. [The complete Hornblower:]London : 1937-62
First editions, first impressions. Forester (real name Cecil Smith) was called to Hollywood to write a pirate film, working under Arthur Hornblower. However, before they had finished the script, another studio released Captain Blood, starring Errol Flynn, and using the same historical incidents that they had counted on. Rather than seeking another position,... Learn More£12,500.00Stock Code: 109292
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CHANDLER, Raymond. Complete set of the Philip Marlowe novels.New York / London : 1938-58
All first editions, first printings. Chandler's first four novels were first published in America; the last three appeared first in the UK. Learn More£12,500.00Stock Code: 106986
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BLOCH, Robert. Psycho.New York : 1959
First edition, first printing. The work was the basis for Hitchcock's seminal film of the same title, released a year after the book was published. Learn More£1,500.00Stock Code: 101725
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FORESTER, C. S. The African Queen.London : 1935
First edition, first impression. Learn More£1,650.00Stock Code: 98902
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JOYCE, James. Ulysses.London : 1936
First UK edition, first impression. From a total printing of 1,000 numbered copies, this is one of 900 on japon vellum, unsigned. The Bodley Head Ulysses established the text for the succeeding 25 years and printed as appendices the International Letter of Protest against Samuel Roth's piracy and the famous legal judgement by John M. Woolsey lifting... Learn More£2,750.00Stock Code: 99728
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CARROLL, Lewis. The Nursery Alice.London : 1890
First published edition, presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the half-title, "Maggie Bowman from the Author. Mar. 31 1890". Dodgson took charge of Maggie Bowman during her stay in Oxford to act in Bootle's Baby (9 to 13 June 1889), and commemorated this event in his poem "Maggie's Visit to Oxford". Her older sister, Isa Bowman, who at that... Learn More£6,750.00Stock Code: 98292
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LEROUX, Gaston. The Phantom of the Opera.London : 1911
First British edition, first impression, of this mystery thriller which formed the basis for Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical and several film adaptations. In his day Leroux was considered "the foremost of the modern French writers of detective fiction". Learn More£3,750.00Stock Code: 93931
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WILDE, Oscar. Lady Windermere's Fan.London : 1893
First edition, first impression. Wilde's first light comedy, Lady Windermere's Fan was produced at the St. James's Theatre on 20 February 1892. Learn More£3,750.00Stock Code: 91613
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O'HARA, John. Appointment in Samarra.New York : 1934
First edition, first printing in lovely fine binding. Learn More£2,500.00Stock Code: 86667
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AMBLER, Eric. The Mask of Dimitrios.London : 1939
First edition, first impression, of this Haycraft-Queen Cornerstone in detective fiction. Learn More£2,000.00Stock Code: 78304
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JOYCE, James. A Portrait of The Artist as a Young Man.New York : 1916
First edition, first printing. Due at least in part to the adverse reception of the Egoist serialisation of A Portrait, no English printer would print the book for fear of prosecution under the obscenity laws. So it was Huebsch that undertook the true first publication. He would send from this print run about 750 sets of sheets for issue in the UK in... Learn More£3,000.00Stock Code: 79658
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DU MAURIER, Daphne. Jamaica Inn.London : 1936
First edition, first impression. Jamaica Inn was Du Maurier's first book, and her strengths in "narrative drive and the evocation of atmosphere" (ODNB) made it an instant best-seller and later a successful film. Learn More£1,750.00Stock Code: 83157
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KAFKA, Franz. The Castle.London : 1930
First edition in English, first impression. The Castle will never attain the fame of its sister The Trial, but in literary terms it is more than a match. This was the first publication in English of any of Kafka's books, preceding English editions of The Trial and Metamorphosis by some seven years. It is far scarcer than either. Learn More£1,500.00Stock Code: 83324
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HARTLEY, L. P. Night Fears and Other Stories.London & New York : 1924
First edition, first impression, of the author's first published work. Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 75396
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THOMPSON, Hunter S. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.New York : 1971
First edition in book form, first printing. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was first published in November 1971 as a two part series in Rolling Stone magazine, for which Thompson wrote until his death in 2005. It was adapted into a film of the same name by Terry Gilliam in 1998, featuring Johnny Depp and Benicio del Toro in the lead roles. Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 77905
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NABOKOV, Vladimir. Lolita.London : 1959
First UK edition. Nabokov's notorious novel was originally published in Paris in 1955. Learn More£1,375.00Stock Code: 78303
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CONRAD, Joseph. The Secret Agent.1907
First edition, first impression. One of Conrad's very best works - a stunning novel of detection, espionage and revolution. "The Secret Agent depicts the atmosphere of Edwardian London in a psychological thriller of the anarchist underworld. Conrad's wit and chivalrous magnanimity are at their airiest in this novel." (Connolly) Learn More£2,000.00Stock Code: 70386
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FORSTER, E. M. A Passage to India.1924
First edition, first impression. Learn More£1,375.00Stock Code: 71077
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GREEN, Henry. Living.London & Toronto : 1929
First edition, first impression. Learn More£1,675.00Stock Code: 71598
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MAUGHAM, W. Somerset. Cakes and Ale.London : 1930
First edition, first impression. Inscribed by the author to the binder's front blank "For Woods Gray W. Somerset Maugham." Learn More£1,500.00Stock Code: 71616
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SHAKESPEARE, William. Venus and Adonis.Oxford : 1905
Limited edition of 1,000 numbered copies, in a superb binding by the Chelsea Bindery, of this Oxford University facsimile reprint of the earliest surviving editions of Venus and Adonis, Lucrece, the Sonnets, The Passionate Pilgrim, and the play Pericles, as a supplement to the reproduction of the First Folio issued by the Oxford University Press in... Learn More£1,800.00Stock Code: 65822
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BRONTË, Charlotte, Emily & Anne. The Brontës Their Lives, Friendships and Correspondence in Four Volumes.Oxford : 1932
The Shakespeare Head Brontë. A handsomely bound set. Learn More£1,500.00Stock Code: 68435
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MAUGHAM, W. Somerset. Of Human Bondage.New York : [1915]
First US edition, second issue with misprint 'help' corrected on page 257. Learn More£1,650.00Stock Code: 68483
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MURDOCH, Iris. Under The Net.London : 1954
First edition, first impression, of the author's first novel. Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 48515
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HEMINGWAY, Ernest. In Our Time.New York : 1925
First American edition, first printing. The New York version of In Our Time is a radically different book from the much shorter Paris version published the year before, which consisted of just 32 pages and contained only the vignettes later used as interchapters in the New York version. Hemingway's American debut contains such well-known stories as... Learn More£2,225.00Stock Code: 43475
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JOYCE, James. Ulysses.London : 1936
First UK edition. The entire edition was limited to 1,000 copies only, of which this is one of 900 numbered copies. This was the first issue to be entirely produced in Britain, with an appendix with documents relating to the legal history of Ulysses and with a bibliography. Learn More£3,750.00Stock Code: 47333
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GREENE, Graham. Brighton Rock.London : 1938
First UK edition, first impression. Originally published in the US earlier the same year. Learn More£1,500.00Stock Code: 48052
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POLOVTSOFF, Pierre. Monte Carlo Casino.1937
First Edition, First Impression, preceding the American edition published the following year. The classic work by the then president of the International Sporting Club. Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 40081
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LOVELACE, Delos Wheeler; Edgar Wallace & Merian C. Cooper. King Kong.New York : 1932
First edition in book form. The novelization was serialized in Mystery Magazine the same year and published in book form slightly before the film was released. Lovelace was a former newspaper reporter, author of several books, including biographies of football coach Knute Rockne and Dwight D. Eisenhower. The original concept was Merian C. Cooper's,... Learn More£1,375.00Stock Code: 40361
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![[The Sword of Honour trilogy:] Men at Arms; Officers and Gentlemen; Unconditional Surrender.](https://d3dzzbbvj9im7s.cloudfront.net/media/catalog/product/cache/ae0834d12b7cf129fc73bcc000ea526a/4/1/41544.jpg)
WAUGH, Evelyn. [The Sword of Honour trilogy:] Men at Arms; Officers and Gentlemen; Unconditional Surrender.1952-61
All first editions, first impressions. Learn More£3,025.00Stock Code: 41544
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FITZGERALD, Zelda. Save Me the Waltz.New York : 1932
First edition, first printing of Zelda Fitzgerald's first and only novel. Learn More£1,650.00Stock Code: 41986
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FAULKNER, William. Pylon.New York : 1935
First edition, first printing, limited issue. Number 310 of 310 copies only signed by the author; one of Faulkner's smallest limitations. Learn More£1,925.00Stock Code: 26303
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TROUBETZKOY, Princess Paul, & C. R. W. Nevinson. Exodus A.D.London : 1934
First and only edition, uncommon, especially in the jacket. Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 143813
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WILSON, Edmund. Axel's Castle.New York and London : 1931
First edition, first printing (Scribner's "A"), scarce in the jacket. Axel's Castle, which is numbered among Connolly's 100 Books of the Modern Movement, was an influential study on the roots of Modernism in the Symbolist Movement, with chapters on W. B. Yeats, Paul Valéry, T. S. Eliot, Proust, James Joyce, Gertrude Stein, and Rimbaud. The title relates... Learn More£450.00Stock Code: 143829
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LOOS, Anita. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.London : 1926
First UK edition, signed limited issue, one of 1,000 unnumbered copies signed by the author. Learn More£500.00Stock Code: 143834
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BENTLEY, Nicolas (illus.); MORTON, John Bingham. 1933 and Still Going Wrong!London : 1932
First edition, first impression, of this collection of poetry satirising contemporary personality types. Learn More£75.00Stock Code: 143762
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LE CARRÉ, John. Single & Single.London : 1999
First edition. Signed by Le Carré on the publisher's slip which is pasted to the half title page. Learn More£60.00Stock Code: 143764
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SMART, Christopher. Rejoice in the Lamb. A Song from Bedlam.London : 1939
First edition, first printing, number 52 of 800 copies, this with the very scarce dust jacket. This is the first printing of Smart's "Jubilate Agno", written 1759-63 in St Luke's Hospital during his period of insanity. The manuscript lay fallow in a private library for well over a century until it was discovered and edited by W. F. Stead. The visionary,... Learn More£500.00Stock Code: 143770
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FORD, Ford Madox. The Soul of London:London : 1905
First edition, first impression. Presentation copy from the author, inscribed in blue-green ink on the front free endpaper: "Walter Jerrold, affectionately from Ford Madox Hueffer. June 15th 1905" (the book was published on 2 May). An excellent association copy: Walter Jerrold (1865-1929) was a prolific author and a familiar figure on the Edwardian... Learn More£500.00Stock Code: 143772
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CASE, Frank. Tales of a Wayward Inn: Algonquin.New York : 1938
First edition, first printing of this memoir by the owner and manager of the Algonquin Hotel, during the heyday of the Algonquin Round Table. Learn More£300.00Stock Code: 143730
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PRIESTLEY, J. B. Angel Pavement.London : 1930
First edition, first impression, inscribed by the author, "To W. F. C. Smith with J. B. Priestley's compliments" on the half-title. Learn More£200.00Stock Code: 143737
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AMBLER, Eric, as Eliot Reed. The Maras Affair.Garden City, NY : 1953
First US edition, first printing of the third book written by Ambler using the pseudonym of Eliot Reed. Learn More£65.00Stock Code: 143759
