Modern Literature
London, Heinemann, 1962.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket.
The 6th in the author's A Dance to the Music of Time series.
Modern Literature
London, André Deutsch, 1973.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket.
The famous screenwriter's first novel.
Modern Literature
London, Hodder & Stoughton, [1926].First UK edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.This historical romance is set during the 1900 siege of the foreign legations in Peking (part of the Boxer Rebellion).
Modern Literature
London, Longmans, Green, 1957.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket, price sticker of 8/- to inside front flap.
Kaye's second major historical novel. Although first published in 1957, it was reissued in 1979 after Kaye's success with The Far Pavilions. Set against a backdrop of the Sepoy Rebellion of 1857.
Modern Literature
London, Sidgwick & Jackson, 1978.
First UK edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket, priced £5.50.
Written after A Voyage to Arcturus but repeatedly rejected by publishers, the metaphysical novel remained unpublished until 1976. Uncommon.
Modern Literature
Translated from the German by Edwin and Willa Muir
London, Routledge, 1938.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original red cloth lettered in gilt to spine.
Kafka's first novel, assembled posthumously, satirises American optimism and bureaucracy.
Modern Literature
Berlin, Schocken verlag, 1934.
First edition. 8vo. Original boards with printed title label to spine and upper cover.
This short parable, later embedded in The Trial, depicts a man seeking entry to the Law. A gatekeeper bars him, telling him he can try to enter later; the man waits his entire life until death, never realising that the gate was meant solely for him...
Modern Literature
London, Hutchinson, [1933].
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket.
Modern Literature
London, Chatto & Windus, 1977.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket.
Modern Literature
Stories stranger than fiction
London, John Murray, 1941.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket.
Modern Literature
London, Chatto & Windus, 1970.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket, with publisher's promotional wraparound/bellyband.
Modern Literature
London, Chatto & Windus, 1987.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket.
Modern Literature
London, Chatto & Windus, 1968.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket.
Modern Literature
London, Chatto & Windus, 1976.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket.
Modern Literature
London, Chatto & Windus, 1974.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket.
Winner of the Whitbread literary award for Fiction.
Modern Literature
London, Chatto & Windus, 1969.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket.
Modern Literature
London, Chatto & Windus, 1976.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket.
Modern Literature
London, Werner Laurie, 1950.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 9s6d.
The author's first book. Humour and political nuance as British and American expatriates react to the uprising in the Balkans.
![Harold Owen, Loyalty, first edition, inscribed compliments slip from the author, [1918]](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/87143-300x300.jpg)
Modern Literature
a play in four acts
London, Hodder & Stoughton, [1918].
First edition, first impression. With note inscribed 'with the author's compliments'. 8vo. Original blue cloth with printed title label to spine and upper cover.
A pro-war dramatic work aimed at countering pacifism during World War I. The play debuted in November 1917 and was notably revived in July 1918 by royal request, with C. Aubrey Smith in the cast.
!['Edward Omen', Nutopia, first edition, [1908]](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/87142-300x300.jpg)
Modern Literature
or Nineteen-Twenty-One
London, Henry J. Drake, [1908].
First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth lettered and blocked in black.
Nutopia falls into a somewhat niche category of early feminist utopian fiction - the idea being a utopian island society governed by women. While it hasn't attracted wide scholarly attention, it earned a brief mention in utopian studies contexts because of its subject matter.
Modern Literature
London, Allan Wingate, 1952.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket, priced 11s.6d.
Set in Trinidad, this social novel draws on Selvon's lived experience as a Trinidadian-born West Indian writer, exploring love and community in a Caribbean context.
Modern Literature
London, John Lane The Bodley Head, 1936.
First UK edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 2/6.
A gentle domestic novel centred on newlyweds from very different social backgrounds grappling with the challenges of early marriage and class discord. The title, bearing the heroine's name, indicates a character-driven story of personal growth and social navigation.
Modern Literature
London, Heinemann, 1935.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
A psychological-romance novel steeped in mysticism and allegory, it tracks the enigmatic Ivor Trent as he disrupts and reflects the "disillusion…expectation…something massive was needed…" state of 1930s Britain.
Modern Literature
Translated by Joyce Davis
London, Thornton Butterworth, 1927.
First English edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
Romantic adventure set in 'Black Algiers'.
Modern Literature
Translated from the Italian by Archibald Colquhoun. London, Collins and Harvill, 1960.First English edition. 8vo. Original green cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 16s.The famous autobiographical reminiscences of the Sicilian nobleman Giuseppe Tomasi, Duke of Palma and Prince of Lampedusa. Memorably transferred to the big screen in an ambitious bilingual project, starring Burt Lancaster.
![Taffrail. [Dorling (Henry Taprell, pseud.)] Pirates](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/87118-300x300.jpg)
![Alternative view of Taffrail. [Dorling (Henry Taprell, pseud.)] Pirates](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/87118_2-300x300.jpg)
Modern Literature
London, Hodder & Stoughton, [1929].
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
A naval adventure based on Royal Navy encounters with pirates in the Canton Delta. The narrative focuses on authentic sea combat and maritime tactics.
Modern Literature
London, Constable, 1935.
First UK edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.
A sprawling novel of music, ambition, and complex relationships. It features composer Edmund Abbey, his wife, and her admirer, with interwoven flashbacks across the artistic and operatic world. In attractive Barbosa jacket.
Modern Literature
London, Ward, Lock, 1933.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket, price-clipped, code '511' to spine.
Classic inter-war era nautical thriller, from the author of The Death Ship (1933).
Modern Literature
London, Chatto & Windus, 1962.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 18s., with original publisher's promotional band.
Murdoch's sixth novel, a domestic drama unfolding after the death of Fanny Peronett. Retired civil servant Hugh Peronett sees his acerbic son Randall's life unravel through an affair, while Hugh reignites a long-dormant romance with his former lover, novelist Emma Sands, all framed within simmering family tensions...
Modern Literature
London, Hodder & Stoughton, n.d. [c.1922].
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
Unusual crime themed novel missed by Hubin of a young English aristocrat who departs for the United States with the intent to become a 'western' outlaw. During a hold up on the Southern Pacific railroad, he encounters a lady in distress.
Modern Literature
London, Macmillan, 1932.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth lettered in gilt to spine. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
Subtitled 'Being Romances of Old London and of that which Never Dies The Good lives on eternally Only the baser things can die '.
Modern Literature
London, Stanley Paul, 1924.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket.
Born Gertrude Soilleux Webster, this prolific Edwardian novelist was noted for boldly addressing feminine sexuality and social expectations; several of her works were deemed risqué and occasionally banned from public libraries.
Modern Literature
London, Chatto & Windus, 1964 [1963].
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 21s.
Byatt's first novel, an examination of the relationship between a girl and her father. Uncommon.
Modern Literature
A Study of Modern Writers and Beliefs
London, Jonathan Cape, 1935.
First edition, second impression. Signed presentation copy from the author. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, clipped but with price 8s. 6d. present.
An interesting copy, inscribed by Spender 'To Tony with love from Stephen December 9, 1939'. Presumably this would be to Tony Hyndman, Spender's lover whom he lived with between 1933 & 1936. This inscription was around the time that relationship had ended, with Spender marrying Inez Pearn that month, after an engagement of only three weeks. Hyndman is referred to as 'Jimmy Younger' in Spender's memoir World Within World.
Modern Literature
A Novel... A New and Complete Translation from the Russian, by Constance Garnett
London, Heinemann, 1901.
First edition thus. 2 vol. 8vo. Blind-stamped 'presentation copy' to title-pages, titles printed in red & black. Original dark green cloth.
Tolstoy's classic novel, following the tragic affair of Anna Karenin, wife of a St Petersburg aristocrat, and Count Vronsky. Her social fall and doomed passion unfold alongside a parallel narrative of Levin, whose philosophical quest culminates in familial and spiritual resolution. Preceded by the Vizetelly edition.
Modern Literature
London, Faber & Faber, 1939.First trade edition, first impression. Royal 8vo. Original red cloth ruled and lettered in silver to spine. Dust-jacket, priced 25s.A near fine first edition of Joyce's key work of literary modernism, a hallucinatory, dream-like narrative centred on the Earwicker family that weaves myth, history and language into a cyclical structure.
Modern Literature
London, Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1959.
First UK edition, first impression. 8vo. Original burgundy boards. Dust-jacket, priced 13/6d.
A harrowing novel set amidst the ruins and social fragmentation of post-WWII Germany, it tracks a group of survivors as they navigate devastation, crime and moral collapse in a shattered Munich. Great jacket artwork by Biro.
Modern Literature
London, Herbert Jenkins, 1937.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original dark orange cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
A light comic novel in Thomson's "Reggie" series, following society-bound Reggie as he relocates to the countryside.
Modern Literature
London, Laidlaw & Butchart, 1938.
First UK edition, first impression. 8vo. Original pale yellow cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
A tale of friendship, small-town enterprise and female entrepreneurship: two young women team up to start an "unusual business" in rural surroundings.
Modern Literature
London, Ward Lock, 1951.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original orange cloth. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.
A light fiction piece about dress-design and haute couture, revolving around fashion industry themes.
Modern Literature
Translated from the French by Stanley Chapman
London, Rapp & Carroll, 1967.
First UK edition, first impression. 8vo. Original olive boards. Dust-jacket, priced 25s.
A surreal, tragic-comic love story set in a world where objects and bodies decay in sync with emotion. The narrative is layered with dark fantasy, jazz culture parodies, philosophical puns and a sharp critique of consumerism.
Modern Literature
London, Jonathan Cape, 1967.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original red boards. Dust-jacket, clipped to inside front flap but with prices present.
Count Boris Slattery's mid-life descent into obsession, nostalgia, alcoholism, sexual fixation on teenage girls and personal crisis in an English seaside town. Farrell's first Cape-published novel, prior to his acclaimed Empire Trilogy.