Titles starting with F from Stuart Bennett Rare Books

Paris: Chez Prault, pere, 1748. [viii], 205, [3]pp., 8vo. Engraved frontispiece, title vignette, and headpiece by Le Bas, with prose explanations, title printed in red and black. Contemporary mottled calf, spine gilt; lower compartment of spine chipped, joints split but firm. First edition of these La Fontaine-esque fables in verse, with the influence of that author acknowledged by the presence of his portrait bust in the allegorical frontispiece.... more information

London: Printed in the Year, 1704. [iv], 20pp., 4to. Minor browning, old manuscript shelf-mark in the lower margin of title (in red ink, sadly), small marginal tear in the margin of the last leaf. Still a good large copy, disbound. First edition, with commendatory poems by C.D. and H.B., the former comparing the author to Dryden. Foxon, English Verse 1701-1750, S427, with a substantial note on Shippen’s likely authorship, although some contemporaries attributed the poem to Daniel Defoe or Matth... more information

London: Printed for James Knapton at the Crown in St. Paul’s Church-Yard, Bernard Lintott. . . , and Egbert Sanger at the Middle Temple Gate, Fleet-street, 1710 . [xvi], 63, [1]pp., 4to. With the half-title. Small stain in the blank upper corner throughout, with a little loss to the extreme corner of the half-title and a neat repair to the same blank area of the last leaf, but a large and sound copy. Modern cloth, spine gilt-lettered. First edition, perhaps the author’s most successful play... more information

London: Roake and Varty, November, 1831. 40pp., 8vo. Title-leaf printed twice (both included in the pagination). A little spotting, but a nice copy, disbound. First edition, doubtless by the same author as “Fate of ‘The Bill’ [Versified].” This poem, however, takes as its setting “The London Anti-Slavery Society Meeting,” and pokes fun at the pompous and largely ineffective bickering among the abolitionists. The poem is rare, with OCLC and COPAC between them locating six... more information

London : Printed for Jo. Hindmarsh, 1685. [viii], 55, [1]pp., 4to. Prefatory leaf “The Publisher to the Right Worshipful” with a contemporary manuscript addition “Sr. Thomas Player Chamberlaine of London.” Browned throughout from the poor paper quality, a couple of slight marginal tears well clear of text, but a large copy with some untrimmed edges. Nineteenth-century wrappers. Second edition, first published in 1662 with the agreeably false imprint “Bellositi Dubonorum”... more information

London: Arthur Hall, Virtue, and Co., 1861. [viii], 261, [3]pp., 8vo. With the half-title and terminal leaf of advertisements. A couple of leaves with insignificant foxing, one tiny blemish at the center of the spine, otherwise a wonderfully fine copy in the original forest green cloth, covers blindstamped with a gothic pattern, spine gilt. First edition. The author’s preface comments, “I think there are certain young people who will hereafter thank their Aunt Anne for having secured them ... more information

London: Printed for J. Hatchard, 1804. vii, 81, [3]pp., sm. 8vo. With the half-title and terminal publisher's advertisements, contemporary manuscript "Vocabulary of Fashion" inserted before the half-title (this manuscript frayed at the outer edge and cropped at the bottom but mostly intelligible), a couple of manuscript notes in the text, one in a blank lower margin which has been folded by the binder for preservation. Contemporary half calf, spine gilt; joints split but holding. First ... more information

[Edinburgh?:] Printed May 27th, Anno 1703. 7, [1]pp., 4to. Paper slightly damaged from damp at the extreme outer fore-edge, well clear of text, otherwise a very good untrimmed copy, disbound. Two issues of this pamphlet exist, the earlier dated May 26th; presumably there was an overnight stop-press change of date. The pamphlet is rather crudely printed, perhaps befitting its then-subversive assertion that at least half the population of Scotland wanted the Episcopal and other denominations tolerated a... more information

London: Published by Dean & Munday, 1828. 140, [4]pp., 18mo. Engraved frontispiece, with a publishers’ catalogue at end. Original blind-embossed cloth, spine gilt with title and price “2s”; upper joint partly split, but sound. First edition, by an otherwise-unknown author, but presenting an interesting puzzle of attribution. A.K. Newman, who often co-published with Dean & Munday, also issued this title in the same year with the statement “Prepared for the Press by Mrs. Hof... more information

Bath: Printed by Mary Meyler, Abbey Church-Yard, 1829. [iv], 80pp., 4to. Title-page inscribed “Mrs. D. . . from the Author.” A fine, fresh, and entirely untrimmed copy in the original drab boards, printed paper spine label mostly present; some wear to edges and backstrip. First edition, privately printed, as confirmed in a prefatory note: “These songs are all published with Music, but being the Property of various Persons, the Author has not the power of publishing them collectively. Th... more information

York: Printed by Thomas Wilson and Son. . . for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Browne; and for Harvey and Darton, London, 1821. 71, [1]pp., 18mo. With the commendations and publisher’s advertisements at end; a well-used copy with tears into the gutter at foot, touching text but without loss, some other marginal tears and soiling. A complete, unsophisticated copy in the original drab wrappers; lower cover missing some of the outer paper, but upper cover complete with title printed within a decorat... more information

London, Printed: And sold by J. Walter, Charing-Cross, and J. Willis at Newbury, 1775. 22pp., 4to. Contemporary manuscript correction to a word at p. 9. A nice large copy in modern marbled boards, morocco spine label. First edition. Penrose was more than a country curate, having begun his career as a naval adventurer in South America. A wound forced him to retire to Oxford; he later took holy orders and died young in 1779. The first poem in this collection, “The Helmets,” is a “Progn... more information

Paris: Chez H. Nicolle, Libraire, 1819. 4 vols. in two, 12mo. With the half-titles, and an astonishingly unflattering engraved portrait after the original “fait à Londres en Septembre 1818”; two small tears in Vol. I, one removing a page number but no text affected in either case. An attractive copy in contemporary half calf gilt. First edition in French, one of Lady Morgan’s great novels of Irish nationalism and perhaps her most serious investigation of the contemporary state of ... more information

London: Printed for J. Walthow, 1731 . xii, 251, [1]pp., sm. 8vo. Some browning and occasional soiling throughout. Contemporaray panelled calf; neatly rebacked. First edition, including several poems by women, many others about them, and many on Irish subjects. One is called “A Poem in Praise of Nastiness. To Cindercola Scrub” (it begins “O Goddess of the dirty hue!/ With eyes so red, and cheeks so blue. . .”). I last handled a copy of this miscellany in 1981, and here fall... more information

Stockholm: Tryckt i Marquardska Tryckeriet, 1816. xiv, 430, [2]pp., 8vo. With a terminal errata leaf. Nice copy in contemporary, certainly Swedish, half sheep over marbled boards, spine gilt; just a bit rubbed. “Tredje Upplagan,” i.e. third edition, revised. An excellent introduction to English for Swedes, with discussion (in Swedish) of pronunciation and grammar, a synoptic vocabulary, and a fine selection of pieces in prose and verse including a description of London, and a substantial je... more information

London: Printed for Humphrey Moseley, 1658 -59. Two works in one vol., 8vo. Engraved portrait by Marshall (cut close at outer edges), the dedication to Lady Southcot of the “Last Remains” here bound, along with its errata, after the title of the first work; occasional slight browning and spotting. Contemporary sheep; expertly rebacked with a gilt label by Philip Dusel. Ownership inscription “Tho. Coxeter Coll Trin: Oxon” on bank verso of title (see below). “The Third Edition,... more information

London: John Murray, 1832. [viii], 142, [2]pp., 8vo. With the half-title and terminal advertisement leaf. A nice fresh copy in the original printed brown wrappers, g.e. (backstrip chipped but holding), upper cover inscribed “The Countess Guiccioli From the Publisher” “Eighth Edition,” so stated on title, but just the right edition and date for one of the social events of the spring of 1832, which was the first visit of Lord Byron’s last mistress, the Countess Teresa Guiccioli,... more information

Edinburgh: Published by William Oliphant, 1826. 228pp., 18mo. Additional engraved title and three plates, all elegantly (but possibly amateurishly) hand-colored. Contemporary marbled boards; clumsily rebacked with plain cloth, new endpapers added. First edition in English of these improving short stoires, which include “The Lost Child,” “Nothing is gained by Bad Humour,” “Harry the Vagabond,” “Louisa,” “The Happiness of being Able to Read,” and “T... more information

London: Printed and Sold by Luke Hinde, 1761. [xl], 174, [2]pp., 8vo. With a terminal leaf of advertisements, contemporary ownership inscription “Mary James” at head of title. Modern half calf. Fifth edition, first published in 1702, of a fine series of poems on, as The Feminist Companion to Literature in English puts it, "friendship and marriage, the power of words, and need for modesty in both sexes; her vivid images include that of a sucking child." She met her husband in Lancas... more information

London: Printed for Jacob Tonson, at the Judge's Head, 1695. 11, [1]pp., folio. Title within mourning borders; first couple of leaves disjunct, but a nice large copy in modern wrappers. First edition, one of two issues not differentiated by Wing, of which this, without the author's name on the title page, is the rarer, with ESTC locating only the Folger and National Library of Ireland copies. Wing W646.... more information