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.
DAHL, Roald. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.New York : 1964
First edition, first printing, first issue, in the first state dust jacket. In the words of his biographer Donald Sturrock, this is Dahl's "most famous children's book". The US edition preceded the UK edition by three years.
The first issue can be distinguished by the six lines of printing information on the final page; this was cut to five...Learn More
VOLTAIRE. La Henriade, avec des variantes et des notes. Et l'Essai sur le Poëme Epique.London : 1734
Later edition of Voltaire's national epic, from the library of Francis Hutcheson, the 19th-century rector of Donaghadee and grandson of the Enlightenment philosopher of the same name, with his engraved bookplate on the front pastedown.
The elder Francis Hutcheson was a direct contemporary of Voltaire: both were born in 1694 and came of age...Learn More
WELLS, H. G. Les premiers hommes dans la lune.Paris : [1901]
First van Maële edition, the preferred issue, perhaps the most extraordinary graphic realization of Wells's classic lunar novel. This copy retains the exceptionally rare dust jacket, which features an illustration that appears neither in the book nor on the binding.
Van Maële's vivid depictions of the moon and its Selenite inhabitants...Learn More
ERAGNY PRESS: NERVAL, Gérard de. Histoire de le reine du matin & de Soliman prince des genies.Hammersmith, London : 1909
First Eragny Press edition, in immaculate condition. Number 41 of 130 nominated copies, this copy bears the printed name of the subscriber Charles Gadala. Particularly celebrated for their woodcuts, Lucien and Esther Pissarro of the Eragny Press made their first effort to print the cuts in gilt and multicolour in this edition.
The Pissarros...Learn More
MAUGHAM, W. Somerset. Of Human Bondage.London : 1915
First British edition, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, "For David G. Tomlinson, thanking him for wishing me to write my name in this book. W. Somerset Maugham. Beverley Hills, March 4, 1936."
The work is "a heavily revised and amplified version of an unpublished novel, a fictionalized work of autobiography... In the new...Learn More
SALINGER, J. D. The Catcher in the Rye.Boston : 1951
First edition. Salinger's work is widely recognized as the great American post-war coming-of-age novel and is perhaps the definitive story of teenage angst. Celebrated by both critics and generations of adolescents, it has also faced much censorship, becoming the most restricted title in American high schools and libraries from 1962 to...Learn More
BESANT, Annie. An Autobiography.London : 1893
First edition, signed by the publisher on the front free endpaper, "With T. Fisher Unwin's kind regards and compts., Xmas 1893". Besant's autobiography covers her activities as a socialist, atheist, and supporter of Irish self-determination. Her key role in the Match Girl's Strike is also mentioned, with 2 plates showing the members of the...Learn More
MITCHELL, Margaret. Gone With the Wind.New York : 1936
First edition, in the first issue dust jacket. Mitchell's sole published novel met with immediate acclaim and record-breaking sales, winning her the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. The film adaptation, starring Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable, followed in 1939.
Due to their enduring but not uncontroversial popularity, both the...Learn More
MACCOLL, Ewan. Uranium 235.Glasgow : [1948]
First edition, first impression, of MacColl's drama, one of the early literary works dealing with the nuclear age, first set to music and performed in 1946. "Uranium 235 tries to teach its audience more than simply how radiation and atomic bombs work; it tries to show scientists as a part of society, not separate from it. MacColl offers an...Learn More
MACLISE, Angus. The Subliminal Report.Kathmandu, Nepal : 1975
First edition, limited issue, number 448 of 500 hand-numbered copies.Learn More
DOYLE, Arthur Conan. The Complete Sherlock Holmes.New York : 1953
Signed limited edition, number 25 of 147 copies signed by the author. This "definitive edition" of the Sherlock Holmes stories was issued with signed sheets retained by the publisher from the production of the Crowborough Edition, which was published in 1930. Doyle signed the sheets for the edition but died on 7 July 1930, shortly before its...Learn More
MILLER, Madeline. The Song of Achilles.London : 2011
First edition, limited issue, number 102 of 500 signed by the author. This retelling of the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus won the 2012 Orange Prize for Fiction. It also spearheaded the literary trend for reimagining of classical myths to focus on different perspectives, often with particular consideration for the female or LGBTQ+...Learn More
ORWELL, George. The Road to Wigan Pier.London : 1937
First edition, first impression, of Orwell's classic study of poverty in the north of England. It has since become firmly established among Orwell's best-known and most articulate non-fiction works.
The book was issued to members of Victor Gollancz's Left Book Club as the choice for March 1937, ensuring a large edition. Although Gollancz...Learn More
BOSWELL, James. The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.London : 1791
First edition of the greatest biography in the English language, "one of Western literature's most germinal achievements" (ODNB). Contemporary copies of Boswell's Life of Johnson bound in one are unusual, but the book is perfectly manageable - indeed rather handsome - as a single volume. The copy includes the additions and corrections to the work,...Learn More
MANSFIELD, Katherine. The Garden Party and Other Stories.London : 1922
First edition of the final collection of the author's stories published in her lifetime, rare in fine condition. After Mansfield's death the following year, Virginia Woolf remembered Mansfield for having "the only writing I have ever been jealous of... Probably we had something in common which I shall never find in anyone else" (Diary, vol. 2, p....Learn More
ORWELL, George; STEADMAN, Ralph (illus.). Animal Farm.London : 1995
First Steadman edition, signed and with an original ink sketch by the illustrator of the pig Napoleon in pink and black, dated 12 July 1996. This edition celebrates the 50th anniversary of Orwell's fable and restores the author's proposed preface, "The Freedom of the Press", as an appendix.Learn More
JUVENALIS, Decimus Junius, & PERSIUS FLACCUS, Aulus. The Satires.London : 1693
First edition thus, a complete English verse translation of the two great Latin satirists by various hands. All seven of Persius's satires, along with Juvenal's Satires I, III, VI, X, and XVI, are translated by John Dryden; Juvenal's Satire VII is by his son Charles and Satire XIV by his other son, John.
One of Tonson's handsome folios, the...Learn More
O'BRIEN, Flann. The Third Policeman.London : 1967
First edition of this grimly comic "posthumous fantasy" by "one of the finest of modern Irish fantasists" (Clute & Grant). It follows a murderer who, unknowingly, has himself been murdered and finds himself in a warped alternative Ireland.
O'Brien wrote the novel between 1939 and 1940 but, unable to find a willing publisher, withdrew the...Learn More
SEUSS, Dr. If I Ran the Circus.New York : 1956
First edition, with the requisite advertisements at the rear and the 250/250 price on the front flap. This sequel to Dr Seuss' If I Ran the Zoo (1950) recounts young Morris McGurk daydreaming about turning the empty lot behind Mr Sneelock's store into an elaborate, fantastical circus - "Why, ladies and gentlemen, youngsters and oldsters, / Your...Learn More
RACKHAM, Arthur (illus.); IRVING, Washington. Rip Van Winkle.London : 1905
First Rackham edition. The illustrations immediately established Rackham as the leading illustrator of lavishly produced gift books in the Edwardian era. In March 1905 the original watercolours were exhibited at Leicester Galleries, attracting the attention of J. M. Barrie, who then commissioned Rackham's next book, Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens...Learn More
