David Mason Books

19th Century Literature
email us for desired items, include item title and author, at dmbooks or call 416 598-1015, fax 416 598-3994

Here is a small visual selection of our 19th Century Literature.
Click 19th Century British Literature, 19th Century American Literature, or you can indicate your areas of interest on our customer wants page, and we will quote appropriate material.

GEORGE ELIOT'S FIRST BOOK

(ELIOT, George). STRAUSS, David Friedrich. The Life of Jesus, Critically Examined by... Translated from the Fourth German Edition.
London: Chapman, Brothers, 1846. In three volumes. First edition in English. Translated by Mary Anne Evans (George Eliot). Tall 8vo., original dark grayish green vertical ribbed cloth, boards blocked in blind with a decorative border, and within it, an irregular oval design, with an oval element within it, xix, (xx blank), 423, (424) blank, with 16pp catalogue in volume one; vii, (viii -blank), 454; viii, 446pp. With the half-titles.

Some wear to the foot of the spines, head of the spine of volume one has small split with a touch of wear, spines very slightly faded, a couple of small marks on the upper cover of volume three but in fact a near fine set in the original cloth. Scarce in original cloth and scarce in nice condition. The Jarndyce Catalogue - George Eliot in the Original Cloth (1988) offered a rebound copy thus; "very scarce rebound, even more so in cloth". Jarndyce goes on to say the only copy they had seen in original cloth was catalogued by Ximenes, described as in green cloth (as is ours). Parrish's "Victorian Lady Novelists" describes two bindings giving precedence to this green binding with the catalogue.

This work, first published in German in 1835 aroused a great deal of interest and went through four editions before 1840. Joseph Parkes, the radical politician and his friends sponsored the cost of publication and translation, first undertaken by Elizabeth Rebecca Brabant in 1843. By 1844 she decided that the task was too difficult and offered it to Mary Anne Evans who took two and a half years to complete the translation. "It proved indeed difficult with densely textured German interspersed with quotations in Latin, Greek and Hebrew."

This was Eliot's first published work, Baker & Ross A1.1. Not in Sadleir or Wolff, neither of whom bought the non-fiction of their authors.

$11000.00 (CAD)

First Appearance "Sister Helen" by Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

HOWITT, Mary (editor). The Dusseldorf Artists' Album. Edited And Translated By... With Original Contributions by Various English Poets.
London: Trubner And Co., 1854. First and only English translation. 4to., full contemporary green morocco, raised bnds, gilt compartments, elablorate decorative gilt frame on upper and lower cover, A.E.G., (ii), 40pp text, with 27 lithograph plates, frontispiece & an engraved title. A fine copy of an attratively produced book.

This contains the first appearance of the poem "Sister Helen" by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Originally published in Dusseldorf (1851-56) Mrs. Howitt created this English version of the 1854 issue and added several works by English poets.

$1,250.00 (CAD)

WAITE, Arthur Edward. The Golden Stairs: Tales from the Wonder-World.
London: The Theosophical Publishing Society, 1893. First edition. 8vo., orig. maroon cloth with pictorial decoration in gilt on the upper cover, 109, iii pp.ads.
Name, small hole in the spine with a touch of rubbing to the ends but o/w a near fine, bright copy of an attractive book.

Arthur Edward Waite [1857 - 1942] was a scholarly mystic who wrote extensively on occult and esoteric matters, and was the co-creator of the Rider-Waite Tarot deck. As his biographer, R.A. Gilbert described him, "Waite's name has survived because he was the first to attempt a systematic study of the history of western occultism - viewed as a spiritual tradition rather than as aspects of proto-science or as the pathology of religion." He wrote occult texts on subjects including divination, esotericism, Rosicrucianism, Freemasonry, black and ceremonial magic, Kabbalism and alchemy; he also translated and reissued several important mystical and alchemical works. His works on the Holy Grail, influenced by his friendship with Arthur Machen, were particularly notable.[A number of his volumes remain in print, the Book of Ceremonial Magic (1911), The Holy Kabbalah (1929), A New Encyclopedia of Freemasonry (1921), and his edited translation of Eliphas Levi's Transcendental Magic, its Doctrine and Ritual (1896).

$850.00 (CAD)

DICKENS, Charles. The Personal History And Experience of David Copperfield, The Younger. With Forty Illustrations Engraved On Wood By J.W. Orr From Designs by H.K. Browne. New York: John Wiley, 304 Broadway, Corner of Duane Street, nd. (1850). In two volumes. First U.S. book edition, variant issue, status uncertain. 8vo.,orig. dark brown cloth with blindstamped decoration on the covers, gilt lettering on the spines, (xii), 480; viii, 454pp. With illustrations.

$2500.00 (Canadian)

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IN THE VERY RARE DUSTWRAPPER

Haggard, H. Rider. Ayesha.
Toronto: William Briggs, 1905. First Canadian Edition.
8vo., cloth gilt.
Lacks front free endpaper and has a previous owner's owner-ship stamp on recto of frontis. o/w fine in the dust-wrapper as issued. Canadian issues of international literature has been one of our specialties for almost forty years and we have handled many copies of this book which is relatively common (at least in Canada). However, this is the only copy in the rare dustwrapper which we have owned or, in fact, ever seen. $2,500 (CAD)




	All of the above are first editions.


	The first book with a lithographed cover.

	A few of our Three-Deckers .




	BELOW John Leech - Extra Illustrated Kitton, Fred G. John Leech Artist and Humourist: A Biographical Sketch London: George Redway, 1883. Extra Illustrations with 34 additional plates (some folding and some handcoloured) including some plates from Dickens' Christmas Carol and with an autograph letter from Leech. Full morocco, raised bands, gilt compartments, t.e.g. inner dentelles gilt.

19th Century Literature
email us for desired items, include item title and author, at dmbooks or call 416 598-1015, fax 416 598-3994

Email Enquire

DAVID MASON BOOKS

19th Century Literature email us for desired items, include item title and author, at dmbooks or call 416 598-1015, fax 416 598-3994

Email Enquire

19th Century Literature
email us for desired items, include item title and author, at dmbooks or call 416 598-1015, fax 416 598-3994