Titles starting with L from Stuart Bennett Rare Books

London: Printed for Henry Brome at the Gun, 1681. 18pp., 4to. A little dusty, but a nice copy, sewn. First edition, a different work to one with L’Estrange’s name on the title page, published for Brome the same year and titled L’Estrange no Papist: In Answer to a Libel entituled L’Estrange a Papist, &c. Halkett and Laing give the present pamphlet to L’Estrange as well, as does one of his biographers (Ketchin), but the ESTC entry suggests there may still be some doubt.... more information

Paris: Constant Le Tellier Fils, 1826. [iv], 167pp., 18mo. Engraved frontispiece, with the half-title. Contemporary tree sheep; rebacked with most of the original spine and a clumsy new gilt label. First edition in French, rare, and an appropriate title for a French translation as the story concerns the young victim of a French shipwreck and her friendship with the daughter of a Norfolk curate. Lucy Peacock was one of the more successful writers of children's fiction of the period; she was also th... more information

Paris: Chez A. Boulland, [circa 1836-1840]. 176, [2]pp., 18mo. Engraved title and three plates by Montaut; some spotting and a few marginal pencil marks, a few leaves slightly sprung, and with some very minor, almost pinprick worming in the lower margin. Contemporary sprinkled sheep, gilt; spine ends very slightly chipped. Apparently first published by Dider in 1834 with a third edition of 1836, I suspect this is a reissue of Didier’s unsold sheets. Adèle is the young smallholder of the t... more information

London: Henry Colburn, Publisher, Great Marlborough Street, 1849. 3 vols., 8vo. Without the advertisement leaf at the end of Vol. II, but an unusually nice copy in straight-grained citron calf, fully gilt with triple spine labels, t.e.g., by Bayntun, original covers and spines bound in each volume; spine tips just a little rubbed. First edition, generally considered to be Ainsworth's last masterpiece, and an influential classic of supernatural literature. The story begins in the sixteenth century w... more information

London: Printed for J. Peele [et al.], 1720. [ii],xvi,389,[1]p., Engraved frontispiece by Van der Gucht after Cheron; some mild staining, especially at the edges of the first few leaves. A large copy, neatly bound in calf-backed marbled boards antique, spine gilt. First edition, a different version of the first book alone had been published separately in 1717. Foxon, English Verse 1701-1750, B562... more information

London: Printed in the Year, 1687. 12pp., 4to. Disbound. First edition, a reply to William Darrell’s “Lay-man’s Opinion,” and sometimes attributed to him. The pamphlet supports the King and closes with a page of verse invoking the familiar image of the panther. Wing L747.... more information

Londres [but certainly Paris]: Chez J. Nours, 1753. xxiii, [i], 248pp., 12mo. A few spots and stains, tiny extreme blank corner off the tip of the title-leaf. Contemporary sheep, spine gilt; extremities worn and chipped, but structurally entirely sound. First edition in French of Arbuthnot’s splendid John Bull pamphlets, which Macaulay called “the most ingenious and humorous” in the language, in a translation attributed to Paul Francois Velly. It seems a little odd that it took so long... more information

London: Printed for T. N. Longman and O. Rees, 1799. [ii], 708, [4] pp., 8vo. With a publishers’ catalogue at end but without the half-title. Nice copy in mid-nineteenth century half calf, spine gilt. “Second edition, Improved and Enlarged with Considerable Additions,” full of practical advice on how to live a long and healthy life. Willich recommends methods of personal cleanliness, what to wear, what to eat and drink, proper exercise, evacuations, exercise and sleep. One chapter is ... more information

London: W. Joy, 1829. viii, 436pp., 12mo. Engraved frontispiece (a bit stained), title printed in red and black, inserted errata slip. A very nice copy in the original, but slightly later, vertically-ribbed green cloth, matching marbled endpapers and edges. First edition of a fine selection of early ballads, many of them on subjects from the Arthurian romances.... more information

Paris: Chez Briasson Libraire, 1737. viii, 243, [5]pp., 8vo. With the half-title, and the privilege and errata pages at end. Contemporary calf, spine gilt; upper joint split but firm. First edition of this fine verse rendition of Pope’s Essay on Man, and Essay on Criticism, with a long, original critical essay by the translator. The work was much reprinted, but this first edition is uncommon. OCLC records seven copies.... more information

London: Printed for J. Ridgway, 1808. [ii], 86pp., 8vo. Paper somewhat crinkled but perfectly sound; small and old inkstamp of the Mercantile Library, Philadelphia in the upper blank margin of title and first leaf of text. Neatly bound in calf-backed boards antique, spine gilt. First and only edition of one of Hanger’s rarest tracts. He was regarded in his own time as something of a crackpot, the type of the eccentric aristocrat (he became the fourth Baron Coleraine in 1814), but he served in th... more information

London: Sold by W. Owen, 1771. 2 vols. in one, sm. 8vo. With the half-titles. Nice copy in contemporary sheep; expertly rebacked with a gilt spine. First edition in English of these elegant letters by the beautiful and accomplished mistress of Louis XV, who died in 1764, and who was publicly and quite unjustly blamed for the Seven Years War that ended the preceding year. The first letter in this collection sets the tone, pitying her friend the Duke of Mirepoix upon his posting to England, “doome... more information

London: Printed for J. Johnson, 1777. xv, [i], 355, [1]pp., sm. 8vo. Last leaf slightly spotted. Contemporary calf, spine gilt; very worn but the sewing cords firm. First edition of a fine literary correspondence, with much on Alexander Pope including his “odd perplexity,”, Bolingbroke’s philosophy, the “peculiar beauty” of certain kinds of printing, “the King of Prussia’s Anti-Machiavel,” and various minor poets.... more information

Cambridge: Printed by J. Archdeacon, 1773. [iv], 349, [3]pp., 4to, including the last blank leaf. A large and pleasant copy in contemporary sprinkled calf, spine gilt; slightly rubbed but perfectly sound. First edition of this elegantly-printed series of “classic amusements,” arguing among other things that the Homer referred to by Horace was not that of The Iliad but the “Roman Homer” Quintus Ennius. Among other amusements are the author’s disputing Alexander Pope over the la... more information

London: Printed for Sam. Briscoe, 1696. [xvi], 128, [16], 129-190, [2]pp., sm. 8vo. With the terminal leaf of errata/advertisements; occasional minor soiling, early ownership inscription “A. Lamont” on title and another “Mr. John Campbell” on flyleaves. An excellent copy, entirely unsophisticated in contemporary blind-ruled dark calf, unlettered; headcap very slightly chipped. First edition of one of the more important and less common Augustan epistolary miscellanies, including a p... more information

London: Printed in the Year, 1703. [xvi], 215, [1], 24pp., 8vo. A little minor browning, a couple of leaves with mild stains, but a good large copy in contemporary panelled calf; rather plainly rebacked. Repeated contemporary ownership inscriptions of Robert and William Baldwin on endpapers, with William’s name on the title lined through and replaced by “Thomas Bancks.” First edition. Brown’s Letters from the Dead to the Living, had gone through several editions, and this is a fai... more information

London: Printed for Henry Colburn, 1817. [iv], xii, 200pp., 12mo. With the half-title, the last four pages (197-200) are publisher’s advertisements. Modern wrappers. First edition of previously-unpublished personal letters from Chesterfield, with an unsigned preface explaining their publication and some of the other characters in the letters, which included (as the boy’s schoomasters) Cuthbert Shaw, previously a strolling player, and Samuel Johnson’s friend William Dodd, who was hanged ... more information

Cambridge: Printed by F. Hodson and sold by F.C. and J. Rivington, 1811. xxxi, [i], 468pp., 12mo. Contemporary sprinkled calf; spine darkened and upper joint split, but holding. First edition, uncommon, essentially a poetical miscellany interspersed with some perceptive critical comments. Robert Southey and Joseph Cottle are included, and there is an original poem by Plumptre titled “The Negro’s Exultation.” COPAC records only copies at Cambridge, Nottingham and Oxford; OCLC adds about ... more information

London: Printed by H. Hughs, for J. Walter, 1773. 2 vols., sm. 8vo. First couple of leaves in each volume a little dusty, but a large and pleasant copy in contemporary sprinkled calf, spines gilt; rubbed, with the upper joint of Vol. I partly split but holding. Uncommon first edition of the author’s most famous and important work; it went through countless editions over the next fifty years. While still in her twenties Hester Chapone published letters on women in Samuel Johnson’s Rambler an... more information

[London:] Willoughby & Co., 22, Warwick Lane, [circa 1850]. [iii]-xx, [3]-620pp., 8vo. Engraved frontispiece, additional title, and 58 plates by T. Onwhyn. A fine copy in full red morocco by Root & Son, spine richly gilt, t.e.g. An early edition, and very possibly a reissue of the first edition sheets, which first appeared under the imprint of Robert Tyas in 1840 with the same pagination as here. Richard Willoughby, the publisher, seems frequently to have bought up unsold sheets at a discount ... more information