Titles starting with M from Stuart Bennett Rare Books

Newcastle: John Roos, Publisher, [circa 1840-1850]. 24pp., 12mo. Fine woodcut title. Disbound. One of many early editions of this famous French tale, apparently a true story of a young woman’s trial and condemnation for stealing silverware which in fact was dropped into her house by a magpie; the magpie’s reappearance saves the young woman in the hour before her scheduled execution. The story first appeared in England around 1810, and was many times reprinted, especially in the provinces, bu... more information

Paris: Librairie Encyclopedique et Roret, 1831. [vi], viii, 286pp., 12mo. Three folding plates. Nice copy in later calf gilt, original wrappers bound in. Second edition, first published in 1827. ... more information

London: Henry Colburn, 1828. Edited by the Authoress of ‘Flirtation.’ [i.e. Lady Charlotte Bury]. 2 vols., large 12mo. Without the terminal advertisement leaf in Vol. I and the half-title in Vol. II. Contemporary half calf; rebacked with the original spines. First edition; the editor, Lady Charlotte Bury, was Lady Scott's distant cousin. The plot involves an aristocrat, Lord Fitzhenry, who neglects his pious, middle-class wife and devotes himself to his mistress. The story is supposed t... more information

London: William Darton and Son, [1836]. With the Wild-Flower Alphabet. By the Author of “The Wild Garland,” etc. xi, [i], 166, [2]pp., 12mo. Lithographed frontispiece and two plates, one woodcut tailpiece, with a leaf of publisher’s advertisements at end; some marginal staining, extreme blank corners off a few leaves beginning at p. 23. Original green blindstamped cloth; a few leaves partly sprung, but all intact. First edition, featuring the same young protagonists as her Life of Linn... more information

A la Haye: Chez M.G. Merville & J. Vander Kloot, 1757. qui s’est retiré du monde. Eight parts in four volumes, 12mo. Each part with a separate title, but continuous signatures and (as if this were not sufficiently complicated), the pagination is divided into two volumes, continuous from Vols. I-II and from III-IV. An unusually pretty copy in contemporary mottled sheep, flat spines gilt with an elaborate flower and vine pattern, red morocco labels; near-invisible wormholes at the foot of ... more information

London: Printed for and sold by the Author, [1791]. xxxii, 344pp., 8vo. Engraved portrait, with the half-title, woodcut illustration of a “brank” on p. 285. A fine, entirely untrimmed copy in the original marbled boards; rebacked. First edition of one of the great bookselling autobiographies. Smug and self-congratulatory it certainly is but it is an engaging book, written in the form of letters to a friend, and a real rags-to-riches story, full of the author’s affection not only for his... more information

London: Printed for G. Kearsly, et al., 1764. An English Burletta. As it is performed, at the Theatre-Royal, in Covent-Garden. [viii], 66pp., 8vo. With the half-title. Disbound. First edition, an uncommon play by an Irish author, conceived as a response to the Italian burlettas which at the time had become enormously popular in Dublin. ... more information

London: Printed for D. Wilson and T. Durham, 1759. Translated from the New Edition of his Works in Quarto printed at Paris. vi, [2], 334, [2]pp., 8vo. With the half-title and the terminal blank leaf, title atractively ruled in red; pp. 309-316 slightly sprung. A large and clean copy in worn contemporary calf. First edition in English, with a publisher’s advertisement noting that this book completes the translation of Montesquieu’s works into English. Among its contents are Montesquieu’s... more information

London: Printed, and Sold by Randal Taylor, 1688. With a Letter to Mr. Pulton, challenging him to make good his Charge of Disloyalty against Protestants. And, an Historical Preface, containing an Account of their introducing the Heathen Gods in their Processions. [viii], xxiv, 96pp., 4to. With the initial leaf of imprimatur and errata. An excellent copy in later wrappers. First edition, a full and quite vituperative attack against a the same Jesuit schoolmaster who so exercised Astley Cressener, for whi... more information

London: Chapman and Hall, 1845. By the Author of The “Two Old Men’s Tales.” 2 vols., 8vo. Without the half-titles; some copies also have an inserted prospectus for another work, also not present here. Handsome contemporary half calf, spines fully gilt; very slightly rubbed. First edition of the author’s fourth novel, a tale of political and class struggles set around the time of the French Revolution. There is romance, and a happy ending, but not until the author’s sympathy wit... more information

Paris: Printed for Truchy, French and English Library, 1830. Being Easy Lessons adapted to the Capacities of Youth; to which are added Short Tales by Mrs. Opie, Edgeworth, Etc. Selected and Enlarged by J. Stephens. 144pp., 18mo. With the half-title, several neat and mostly pencil translations of English words into French throughout. Contemporary roan-backed marbled boards; spine worn but sound. First edition of this selection, for French children learning English and with footnotes explaining hard word... more information

London: Grant Richards, 1902. [ii], xxxvi, [157]-235, [1]pp., 8vo. Collotype frontispiece of Fanny Brough as Mrs. Warren, and eleven plates, all from photographs of the original stage production. Original cloth, spine gilt-lettered; a little soiled but a pleasant copy. Front pastedown endpaper boldly signed “Fanny Brough,” the actress who played Mrs. Warren, with the bookplate of Archibald Firestone on the facing free endpaper. First separate edition, published earlier in Shaw’s collec... more information

Amherst, Mass.: Published by J.S. and C. Adams, and S.C. Carter, 1828. 70pp., 18mo. Corners crinkled at beginning and end, but a very respectable survival in the original printed drab wrappers; chipped at extremities but all lettering, including the spine title and lower cover advertisements, intact. First edition, the adventures of Henry and Maria, children of Mr. and Mrs. Barlow who “lived in a small but flourishing village in the beautiful valley, through which the Connecticut River flows.”... more information