Victorian Literature
A Tale of Two Continents
London, John Murray, 1903.
'Author's Edition'. Signed presentation copy from the author. 8vo. Title-page within red border. Original red cloth stamped 'Author's Edition' and gilt facsimile 'Yours ACD' to upper board.
Conan Doyle's historical romance of the Huguenots. Inscribed from the author to the head of the title-page, 'Eric Cowan / with best wishes / from Arthur Conan Doyle April/25'.
![[Clowes], Confessions of an English Hachish-Eater, 1884](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/88592-300x300.jpg)
![[Clowes], Confessions of an English Hachish-Eater, 1884 - second image](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/88592_2-300x300.jpg)
Victorian Literature
[Clowes (William Laird)] Confessions of an English Hachish-Eater
London, George Redway, 1884.
Redways's Shilling Series. 8vo. Original printed boards.
An anonymous first-person narrative of hashish intoxication - visionary dreams and distortions of time and sensation - written in conscious imitation of De Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium-Eater and attributed to the naval writer William Laird Clowes. Issued in Redway's Shilling Series, it is an uncommon piece of Victorian drug literature, sought by collectors of the genre and infrequently offered.
Victorian Literature
London, Heinemann, 1899.
First UK edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth.
This is the first English edition, translated from Nordau's German novel Drohnenschlacht (Carl Duncker, 1898). Nordau (1849–1923), born Simon Maximilian Südfeld, is far better known as co-founder of the World Zionist Organization alongside Theodor Herzl and as the author of the hugely influential cultural polemic Degeneration (1892); he coined the term "muscular Judaism" at the 1898 Zionist Congress. His fiction is now a minor footnote to a major political and intellectual career.
Victorian Literature
London, Longmans, Green & Co., 1886.
First edition. 8vo. Original gilt-pictorial blue cloth.
A collection of fairy tales from Edward Hugessen Knatchbull-Hugessen, 1st Baron Brabourne, a British politician who moonlighted as a children's author, producing a book or two of these stories each year from 1869 to 1894.
![[Lang & Pollock], He, first edition, 1887](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/88284-300x300.jpg)
![Alternative view of [Lang (Andrew) and Walter Herries Pollock]. He](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/88284_2-300x300.jpg)
Victorian Literature
London, Longmans, Green, 1887.
First edition. 8vo. Original pictorial wrappers, rebacked in later paper.
Lang & Pollock's presumably affectionate parody of Rider Haggard's She. Lang (of the Fairy Tale multi-coloured books fame) and Haggard worked together on subsequent projects.
![[Lang & Pollock], He, first edition, 1887](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/88278-300x300.jpg)
![Alternative view of [Lang (Andrew) and Walter Herries Pollock]. He](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/88278_2-300x300.jpg)
Victorian Literature
London, Longmans, Green, 1887.
First edition. 8vo. Original pictorial wrappers, rebacked in later paper.
Lang & Pollock's presumably affectionate parody of Rider Haggard's She. Lang (of the Fairy Tale multi-coloured books fame) and Haggard worked together on subsequent projects.
Victorian Literature
London, T. Fisher Unwin, 1898.
First UK edition, first impression. 8vo. Title printed in red & black. Original cloth, recased.
Somerset Maugham's second book, a historical romance set in late-15th-century Italy, narrating how Filippo Brandolini comes to be venerated as a saint after a conspicuously unsaintly life. One of 2,000 copies (Stott A2).
![[De Morgan (John)] He, a companion to She.](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/88237-300x300.jpg)
![Alternative view of [De Morgan (John)] He, a companion to She.](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/88237_2-300x300.jpg)
Victorian Literature
Being a History of the Adventures of J. Theodosiu Aristophano on the Island of Rapa Nui in Search of His Immortal Ancestor
New York, Norman L. Munro, 1887.
Munro's Library, Vol.50, No.721. 8vo. Original pictorial wrappers.
One of two works written anonymously by John De Morgan as parodies to H. Rider Haggard's novel She.
Victorian Literature
London, Cassell, 1852.
First Cruikshank edition. 8vo. Later half green morocco on marbled boards.
A handsome example of this important early English edition, preceded by the Clark & Co. edition of 1852.
Victorian Literature
Dickens (Charles); Edwards (Amelia) and others. Mugby Junction,
The Extra Christmas Number of All the Year Round
London, Chapman & Hall, 1866.
8vo. Original printed wrappers.
A composite work in which a disenchanted man pauses at a railway junction and experiences a series of encounters and ghost stories. The frame story is by Dickens; the interior tales were contributed by various authors including, notably, 'The Engineer' by Amelia Edwards and Dickens himself ('The Signalman' appears here in its first publication). Uncommon in the original wrappers.
Victorian Literature
London, Smith, Elder, 1891.
First edition. 3 vol. 8vo. Uniformly bound in contemporary half red morocco on red cloth, spines gilt compartments within raised bands.
An attractive set of this historical adventure novel set during the Hundred Years' War in England, France, and Spain in 1366–67, against the background of the Black Prince's campaign to restore Peter of Castile to the throne. One of only 750 copies.
Victorian Literature
Lindsay (Mayne, pseud. Rosina Margaret Hopkins) The Valley of Sapphires
London, Ward, Lock, 1899.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth.
Short stories set in India, inspired in part by the author's own experiences living there for three years. The author's first book.
Victorian Literature
London, Greening & Co., 1906.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original orange cloth blocked in gilt.
A scarce title, and a quietly distinctive supernatural novel by Balfour (1846–1909), a British sinologist, editor and novelist who spent much of his career in Shanghai, where he served as editor of the North China Daily News and other publications. The novel concerns a lame teenage boy surrounded by friendly ghosts, who ultimately joins his dead mother in Heaven.
![Alternative view of [Craik (Dinah)] Romantic Tales](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/87836_2-300x300.jpg)
Victorian Literature
London, Smith, Elder, and Co., 1866.
'A New Edition'. 8vo. Original orange cloth lettered & ruled in black.
A gathering together of stories of an imaginative or fantastical character, drawing on legend, classical antiquity and historical romance, distinct in tone from the domestic realism for which Craik was primarily celebrated. Craik was one of the most widely read Victorian novelists of her day, best known for John Halifax, Gentleman (1856).
![[Arthur W. Marchmont], Isa. A novel, in two volumes, first edition, 1887](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/87805-300x300.jpg)
![Alternative view of [Marchmont (Arthur Williams)] Isa. A novel, in two volumes.](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/87805_2-300x300.jpg)
Victorian Literature
By the editor of the 'North Eastern Daily Gazette'
London, Remington, 1887.
First edition. 2 vols. 8vo. Original grey cloth stamped in black and lettered in gilt.
A surprisingly uncommon title, with only two copies recorded in institutional holdings by WorldCat, and one (Oxford) in Jisc. The author studied law, before turning to journalism, editing the North Eastern Daily Gazette and the Lancashire Daily Post. In the mid-1890s, he left journalism to devote himself to fiction. In total, he wrote some 35 novels which often featured exciting plots and foreign settings.
Victorian Literature
London, Kegan, Paul, French Trubner, 1892.
8vo. Original burgundy cloth elaborately blocked in gilt to upper cover and spine. Dust-jacket.
A very attractive example of this early jacketed publication, similar to the Cranford series.
Victorian Literature
or the romance and reality of the London streets. An unfashionable novel
London, Chapman & Hall, 1858.
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth, spine gilt.
Descriptions of life on the streets of London, the habits & customs of donkey-drivers, the peculiarities of trampdom & vagrancy, etc., drawn apparently from long and patient inquiries among the individuals themselves. A lively insight into London lower-class life in Victorian times.
Victorian Literature
London, , 1871-93.
A near complete run of the single All The Year Round Christmas issues plus 2 Easter issues. 8vo. Original wrappers, all complete with front & back wrappers present.
Charles Dickens' weekly periodical (1859-95) published serial fiction, journalism and the famous Christmas supplements. The near-complete run of Christmas & Easter numbers offered here includes works by Dickens, Wilkie Collins and others. Such runs are valued for their Victorian literary significance.
Victorian Literature
London, T. Fisher Unwin, 1895.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth.
1895 juvenile novel concerning shipwrecked castaways on the wild west coast of Ireland.
Victorian Literature
London, Heinemann, 1897.
First edition. Signed presentation copy from the author. 8vo. Original blind-tooled cloth lettered in gilt.
Davis's rousing adventure novel follows engineer Robert Clay and his love interest, Hope Langham, as they become embroiled in a coup in the fictional Central American republic of Olancho. Uncommon, especially signed & inscribed.
Victorian Literature
A Tale of the Neutral Ground
London, Colburn and Bentley, 1831.
First UK illustrated edition. 8vo. Contemporary half calf with marbled boards, spine with leather title label and decorations in gilt and blind.
A formative American historical novel set during the Revolutionary War, it follows Harvey Birch, a humble peddler who serves as a covert agent for the Colonial army behind enemy lines. First published in the UK in 1821.
Victorian Literature
or The Skimmer of the Seas
London, Richard Bentley, 1834.
First UK illustrated edition. 8vo. Contemporary half calf with marbled boards, spine with leather title label and decorations in gilt and blind.
A sea-faring romance and political allegory set in early New York's pirate-infested waters. It follows altamira as the vessel and her crew, embroiled in piracy and class conflict.
Victorian Literature
London, Trübner, 1888.
Second edition. Signed presentation copy from the author. 8vo. Original blue cloth lettered and ruled in gilt.
A non-fiction political commentary on British-Zulu relations, written after Haggard's return from South Africa. It defends Zulu rights and critiques colonial policies — surprisingly progressive for the time. Uncommon signed.
Victorian Literature
London, Longmans, Green, 1889.
First one vol. edition. Signed & dated by the author. 8vo. Original black cloth with bevelled boards and lettered in gilt.
A narrative which intertwines themes of romance, financial distress and a quest for hidden treasure, exploring the complexities of rural English life in the late 19th century. An attractive early edition, uncommon signed.
![Alternative view of [Magazine; Riddell (Mrs)]. London Society.](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/86677_2-300x400.jpg)
Victorian Literature
An Illustrated Magazine of Light and Amusing Literature for the Hours of Relaxation
London, , 1867.
Volume XII. Large 8vo. Original purple cloth blocked in elaborate gilt to upper cover and spine, and in blind to lower cover.
Vol. XII (July to December) bound with the Christmas number for 1867, containing the first publication of Mrs Riddell's 'Hertford O'Donnell's Warning'.
London Society was a Victorian-era illustrated monthly periodical published between 1862 and 1898 by W. Clowes and Sons in London. It featured miscellaneous articles, short fiction, and serialized novels. Notable contributors included Charlotte Riddell and Florence Marryat.
Victorian Literature
and other stories of War and Sport
London, Smith, Elder, 1900.
First edition. 8vo. Advertisements at end. Original red pictorial cloth lettered in gilt.
A very good first edition of this collection of stories by the creator of Sherlock Holmes.
Victorian Literature
(P'tit Bonhomme)
London, Sampson Low, Marston & Company, n.d. [c.1900].
'New and Cheaper Edition'. 8vo. Original pictorial cloth.
A heart-warming story of a young Irish orphan's trials and tribulations in the late 19th century.
Victorian Literature
London, Sampson Low, Son, & Co., 1862.
First edition. 3 vols. 8vo. Original blind tooled red cloth, spine lettered & decorated in gilt.
A very good first edition set in the original cloth of this epic tale of disinheritance and illegitimacy, originally serialised in Charles Dickens' magazine All the Year Round.
Victorian Literature
Bristol & London, Arrowsmith/Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, [1894].
First edition, second issue with the verso of the title page reset and eighteen titles including the present work listed in the publisher's ad at the rear. 8vo. Original russet red cloth, state with the "f" on the spine uncrossed.
Hope's most famous book, memorably adapted for stage, screen and radio on several occasions.
![Alternative view of Elliot (Frances [Minto]) The Story of Sophia.](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/85604_2-300x400.jpg)
Victorian Literature
A Novel...Copyright Edition
Leipzig, Tauchnitz, 1891.
First edition. 8vo. Contemporary green cloth.
Uncommon first edition by a prolific female writer, somewhat faded from public consciousness today but hugely popular in her lifetime; friend to Dickens, muse to Wilkie Collins, and apparently a wicked author of "gossipy, sometimes scandalous, sketches" (Wikipedia).