Search Results: World Literature from Main Street Fine Books & Manuscripts, ABAA

Oxford: The Limited Editions Club, 1937. Hardcover. Translation by Tobias Smollett. Introduction by J.B. Priestley. Illustrations by John Austen. Complete 2-volume set in slipcase. 4to. Grey and blue cloth with gilt spine lettering, pictorial dust jackets. xxvi, 329pp; x, pp. 330-660. Tissue-guarded color frontispieces, full-page color plates, numerous line drawings, decorative endpapers. Near fine/very good. Jackets show age toned spines and minor edgewear. Handsome and tight set of the third title in the LEC's ninth series, the French picaresque novel originally published between 1715-35 and translated by Smollett in 1748. The illustrations have been delicately and delightfully hand colored. Rear colophon notes limitation to 1500 numbered copies (this #1132) nicely signed by illustrator Austen. While published with dust jackets AND slipcase, the jackets are most often absent; this copy bears the jackets but lacks the slipcase. A lovely, tight set. Laid in is the LEC's 5½" X 4½" printed… Read More

New York: Three Sirens Press, 1931. Hardcover. Introduction by Havelock Ellis. Illustrations by Arthur Zaidenberg. Small 4to. Quarter beige suede with gilt lettering and blue linen. 339pp. Top edge gilt. Frontispiece, full-page illustrations. Very good. Internally tight and near fine, with just the mildest binding wear. Most attractive edition -- apparently the first illustrated English-language edition -- of this once-controversial 1884 French novel in the "decadent" school that spun off of naturalism and is characterized by sensual, excessive aestheticism -- today considered a forerunner of "gay literature" and a volume said to have influenced Oscar Wilde enormously. Woodblock engravings by Zaidenberg (1908-90) are delightfully provocative.

Stuttgart: K. Thienemanns Verlag, n.y.. Hardcover. Illustrations by Rolf Winkler. 4to. Quarter blue cloth with white spine lettering and beige pictorial paper over boards. 187pp, (5pp ads). Illustrations. Very good. Faintest of edgewear; nonauthorial gift inscription on title page. Handsome, tight undated (circa early 20th century) edition, entirely in German, of "Old and New Stories of Till Eulenspiegel: After the oldest printing newly translated and supplemented by H. König." Charmingly illustrated "new" edition of the 15th century German folk hero's adventures.

Paris: Charles Carrington, N.y.. Hardcover. Illustrations by Ed. Zier. Small 4to. Burgundy marbled paper over boards. xvi, 412pp. Illustrations. Near fine. Bookplate on front pastedown. Tight, handsome edition limited to 1000 numbered copies (this #786). Quite attractive.

New York: Pantheon Books, 1975. Hardcover. Translation by David Mel Paul and Margarete Paul. 8vo. Cream cloth, pictorial price-clipped dust jacket. 267pp. Very good/very good. Mild jacket edgewear. First U.S. edition of this Swedish writer's "Novel of the Future," to cite the jacket front panel. Boldly inscribed and signed in blue ballpoint on the half-title page by one half of the husband-wife translating team: "For / Archie and Esther / with thanks / in many languages / David Mel Paul." ARCHIE LIEBERMAN (1926-2008) is a noted Chicago photographer and author of "Farm Boy." Laid in is a Typed Letter Signed from Paul, 1p, 8½" X 11", Washington, DC, 1976 June 24. Near fine. On "United States Information Agency" letterhead, Paul chats cordially and at length about various matters, remarking about this book: "If THE ANIMAL DOCTOR carried you through a storm, that's praise indeed! It please me no end to hear that you liked the… Read More

Norwalk, CT: The Heritage Press, 1952. Hardcover. Introduction by Lionel Trilling. Translation by Constance Garnett and revised by Bernard Guilbert Guerney. Edited by Gustavus Spett. Small 4to. Lavender cloth spine with gilt lettering and blue paper over boards, paper-covered slipcase. xii, 935pp. Fine/fine. This wonderfully tight and bright later reprint of the Limited Editions Club's 1951 edition of Tolstoy's epic 1878 novel bears fine autograph additions from three different film versions, each on fine, matching heavy stock 5" X 3" cards tipped to front flyleaf. Top to bottom: NICOLA PAGETT (1945-2021 -- portrays Anna Karenina in 1977 British t.v. miniseries) signs boldly in blue ink, dating it 7 July 1987 at upper right; YURI VLADIMIROV (born 1942 -- dances in 1975 filmed ballet version) signs boldly in black ballpoint, dating it 18 [illegible] at upper right; and JACK WATLING (1923-2001 -- portrays Stiva, Prince Oblonsky in 1961 British t.v. adaptation) signs boldly in blue ballpoint, dating it… Read More

N.p.: Privately Printed, 1925. Hardcover. 8vo. White cloth spine with gilt lettering and blue paper over boards, dust jacket. xiv, 252pp. Top edge gilt. Very good/good plus. Faintest of edgewear, with endpaper lightly age toned; jacket edgeworn, rather age toned and rubbed and with a few small edge chips. This cryptic edition limited to 1500 copies, this one -- as are most -- unnumbered. Louys died at age 54 on June 6, 1925, which perhaps occasioned this edition. First published in French in 1896 and a blockbuster in its day, the first novel by this French poet and writer (1870-1925) concerns court life in ancient Alexandria and bears the erotic lesbian overtones that colors much of Louys' work. Tight and nice -- internally near fine. Though jacket quite worn, it's complete and fairly attractive nonetheless.

New York: The Modern Library, 1933. Hardcover. 16mo. Brown cloth. xviii, 264pp, (6pp ads). Decorative endpapers. Very good. Spine slightly sunned, else tight and quite attractive. First of this edition.

New York: Ernst Kaufmann, n.y.. Hardcover. Small 8vo. Red cloth with black spine lettering and large color plate on front board. 96pp. Color frontispiece, 2 full-page color plates, decorative endpapers. Very good. Mild edgewear, and text block moderately age toned as usual. A tight, nice copy of this Horatio Alger style tale, entirely in German (title translation: "Poor and Rich or Two Ways of Life: A Narrative"). Undated, but circa 1900. Apparently some publisher's misprint caused them to have to tip a corrected title page on top of the original title page. Quite decent copy of this delicate production, with chromolithographic plates bright and charming.

N.p.: The Bibliophilist Society, 1932. Hardcover. Illustrations by John Alan Maxwell. Small 4to. Lavender cloth, pictorial dust jacket. xxiv, 324pp. Frontispiece, illustrations. Near fine/very good. Mild jacket edgewear and light rubbing, with spine somewhat sunned; inoffensive abrasion on front pastedown and front flyleaf. First of this edition, a translation of Le Sage's naughty, racy 1707 text -- here with saucy illustrations added. Uncommon.

New York: The Limited Editions Club, 1933. Hardcover. Translation by Mrs. Wilfrid Jackson. Introduction by Ernest Boyd. Illustrations by Sylvain Sauvage. 4to. Blue cloth with gilt lettering and red/gold decorative stamping, slipcase. xii, 174pp. Color frontispiece, color illustrations. Near fine/very good. Slipcase apparently a custom replacement, as it's a heavier stock green with purplish decorative paper on both sides instead of the usual red paper over boards with paper label. Tight and attractive copy of the first title in the LEC's fifth series, printed by Chicago's reknowned Lakeside Press. Colophpon at rear notes limitation of 1500 numbered copies (this #1161) signed boldly by Sauvage.

New York: E.P. Dutton and Company, 1951. Hardcover. 12mo. Green cloth with gilt and blue lettering and decorations. xxiii, 249pp, (1p ad). Decorative endpapers. Very good. Tight and handsome #497A of this new American edition of the "Everyman's Library" collection containing the title romance and also 15 other short romances. Small ownership signature on front flyleaf of academic and literary critic Joseph J. Waldmeir (1923-2013).

Frankfurt am Main: Buchergilde Gutenberg, 1954. Hardcover. 8vo. Blue cloth with white spine lettering, dust jacket. 459pp. Very good/very good. Mild jacket edgewear. A tight and attractive reprint edition of publisher S. Fischer's 1954 edition of "Selected Stories," entirely in German, by the Nobel Prize-winning German novelist and short story master. Includes such classic novellas a "Death in Venice" and "Mario and the Magician."

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1980. Hardcover. Translation by Gregory Rabassa. Small 4to. Red cloth with blind-embossed spiral, pictorial price-clipped dust jacket. 332pp. Very good/very good. Small red remainder stamp on top page edges and slight bit of minor foxing to outer page edges -- but overall a tight, clean, attractive first U.S. edition of this Brazilian novel.

London: The Folio Society, 1993. Hardcover. Translation by Donald Adamson. Illustrations by Helen Smithson. 8vo. Tan cloth with gilt lettering and brown pictorial stamping, slipcase. xviii, 221pp. Frontispiece, illustrations. Fine/fine. Circular blind-embossed ownership imprint on title page. First thus, tight and handsome and as always housed in this publisher's nifty curved-front-edge slipcase.

New York: The Heritage Press, 1968. Hardcover. Introduction by Alec Waugh. Illustrations by Bernard LaMotte. Small 4to. Black cloth spine with gilt lettering and green decorated paper over boards, slipcase. x, 266pp. Color frontispiece, color illustrations. Near fine/very good. Circular blind-embossed ownership imprint on page v and small abrasion on front flyleaf; slipcase a bit edgeworn. A tight and nice copy of this "poor man's LEC," being the trade version of the fine Limited Editions Club edition.

London: Peter Owen, 1988. Hardcover. Translation by John M. Parker. 8vo. Lavender cloth with silver spine lettering, pictorial dust jacket. 236pp. Fine/fine. Pristine, tight first U.K. edition.

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1945. Hardcover. Translation by Stuart Edgar Grummon. Small 8vo. Green cloth, pictorial price-clipped dust jacket. 204pp. Near fine/very good. Mild jacket edgewear. Tight and attractive first U.S. edition.

London: The Rodale Press, 1954. Hardcover. Illustrations by Arthur Wragg. 12mo. Quarter russet cloth with gilt spine lettering and decorative paper over boards. 42pp. Color illustrations, pictorial endpapers. Very good. Spine a tad rubbed and endppers faintly age toned; small front flyleaf ownership signature. First of this edition, tight and nice. Flaubert penned this short tale at age fifteen in 1836, and the original manuscript (a bit of which is depicted on endpapers) came into the possession of Austrian writer/biographer and noted autograph collector Stefan Zweig (1881-1942).

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1954. Hardcover. Translation by Willard R. Trask. Small 8vo. Black cloth, dust jacket. 141pp, (5pp). Near fine/very good. Minor soiling to jacket, whose spine is slightly age toned. First U.S. edition, tight and attractive.