![Alternative view of Volney ([Constantin François de Chassebœuf, comte de]) The Ruins:](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/87826_2-300x300.jpg)
or a survey of the revolutions of empires
London, for J. Johnson, 1792.
First edition in English. 8vo. Later calf backed marbled boards, lettered in gilt.
A landmark Enlightenment meditation on the cyclical rise and collapse of civilisations, arguing that empires fall through superstition, political corruption and the misuse of religious authority, rather than divine design. Through a pioneering comparative analysis of ancient religions, Volney treats Christianity as one mythic system among many, anticipating the Christ Myth thesis and establishing the work as a foundational text of modern secular history and comparative religion.
![Alternative view of [Erskine (Thomas, 1st Baron Erskine)] Armata:](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/87825_2-300x300.jpg)
A Fragment
London, John Murray, 1817.
Fourth edition. 8vo. Contemporary half calf.
An early and curious work of speculative fiction in which Thomas Erskine, former Lord Chancellor, imagines a hidden counterpart to the known world. Following a violent storm and shipwreck in the far southern seas, the narrator is cast upon the island of Armata, part of a parallel planet whose geography and civilisation mirror, yet subtly distort, those of Britain. Through this imagined society, Erskine constructs a utopian thought-experiment, using displacement and planetary doubling to explore questions of political order, social justice, war, and economic excess in the aftermath of the Napoleonic era. Part travel romance, part philosophical allegory, Armata stands as an early example of British proto-science-fiction, anticipating later nineteenth-century speculative and utopian narratives.
or biographical sketches of my literary life and opinions
London, Rest Fenner, 1817.
First edition. 2 vols. 8vo. 19th century half morocco with marbled boards.
Coleridge's somewhat divisive fusion of autobiography, literary criticism and German Idealist philosophy, reflecting on the origins of Lyrical Ballads, the nature of imagination, and the principles of poetry.
and of the councels and artifices by which they were carried on, from the year 1640. to the year 1660...printed from the author's true copy
London, for W. Crooke, 1682.
First authorised, separate edition. 8vo. Contemporary blind-tooled calf, rebacked in modern calf with morocco title label lettered in gilt.
Thomas Hobbes' (here spelt 'Hobbs') Behemoth is a dialogue on the causes and course of the English Civil Wars, composed in 1668 but long suppressed by Charles II on account of its forthright political analysis. It circulated in unauthorised continental editions in the 1670s, and in an illicit London issue of 1679/81, before appearing in its first authorised form in 1682, when the London publisher William Crooke printed it, including it at the head of his Tracts of Mr. Thomas Hobbs of Malmsbury. The edition was presented as taken directly from Hobbes' corrected manuscript in an effort to supersede the corrupt earlier printings.In substance, Behemoth complements and extends the arguments of Leviathan. Where Leviathan (1651) set out Hobbes' abstract political philosophy - the need for an undivided sovereign power to prevent a "war of all against all" - Behemoth provides the concrete case study: a scathing dissection of the ideological, religious, and social divisions that, in Hobbes' view, destroyed the unity of the commonwealth and plunged England into rebellion. It is both history and cautionary tale, a practical demonstration of what occurs when the principles of Leviathan are ignored. For this reason, Behemoth has long been regarded as the essential historical companion to Hobbes' masterpiece, showing the theoretical edifice of sovereignty tested against the lived experience of revolution.
London, Chatto & Windus, 1888.
First UK edition. 8vo. Contemporary calf gilt prize presentation binding, marbled endpapers and edges.
Julian Hawthorne (1846–1934) was an American writer and journalist, the son of famed novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne. He authored numerous novels, short stories, and essays, often delving into mystery and speculative fiction.
![Alternative view of [Sterne (Laurence)] A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy, by Mr. Yorick](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/86267_2-300x400.jpg)
London, for T. Beckett and P.A. De Hondt, 1768.
2 vols. First editions. 8vo. Half-titles, list of subscribers, engraved coat-of-arms on D3v of vol.II. Contemporary half calf, simple gilt roll borders to covers, spines gilt ruled compartments within raised bands.
An attractive set of Sterne's final novel, in contemporary full calf binding. Written in part as an answer to Tobias Smollett's decidedly unsentimental Travels Through France and Italy.
Viz. Ombre, in all its Branches. Picquet. And, the Royal Game of Chess. Wherein the Frauds in Play are Detected, and the Laws of each Game Annexed to Prevent Disputes. Written for the Use of the Young Princesses.
London, for E. Curll, 1722..
Third edition. 12mo. Contemporary in Cambridge panelled style with blind tooled borders and decorations, sympathetically rebacked in later calf.
An important work on the development of games, and in particular card games, in Britain in the 18th century. Originally published in 1719, 'written for the use of the young princesses', Seymour confidently declared that 'Gameing is become so much the Fashion among the Beau Monde, that He, who in Company should appear ignorant of the Games in Vogue, would be reckon'd low bred, and hardly fit for Conversation.' Whether this was in fact the case or not is hard to say, but certainly the card games he championed, ombre and piquet, did become increasingly popular, and the book ran to at least eight editions. Scarce.