Literature of the nineteenth-century constitutes the largest section of British literature in the Rare Book Collection. Nearly one thousand volumes contain first or contemporary editions of renowned authors of the period, as well as hundreds of less known writers.

For convenience of discussion, this essay will consider these works by the arbitrary periods of early, mid, and late century. Following these are summaries of titles relating to women and to Irish writers.

• Early Nineteenth Century
• Mid-Nineteenth Century
• Late Nineteenth Century
• Women Authors
• Irish Authors

Early Nineteenth Century

The turn of the eighteenth and rise of the nineteenth centuries encompasses the period known as the Romantic Movement. Our rare book collection has few first editions of the major Romantics, but a number of their early editions are present. Nine works by Maria Edgeworth range from 1795 to 1837 and include the 1802 first edition of An Essay on Irish Bulls, the 1806 first edition of Leonora, and an 1815 edition of Castle Rackrent (originally 1800). Five novels by Ann Radcliffe include the 1797 first edition of The Italian and the 1826 edition of Gaston de Blondeville. The Watchman was published by Coleridge in ten issues in 1796 and the first edition of his Sibylline Leaves (1817) contains a signed letter by the author. The Poetical Works of John Keats, with a Memoir, by James Russell Lowell was published in New York in 1818. Ten first or early editions by Walter Scott include an 1835 edition of The Lay of the Last Minstrel that reveals a fine fore-edge painting. Works by Robert Southey include Roderick the Last of the Goths (1814) and Wat Tyler (1817) among others. The only early works by Wordsworth include two American editions, Poetical Works (Boston, 1824) and Yarrow Revisited and Other Poems (New York, 1835). Several early editions of poetry by Robert Burns include an 1809 edition published simultaneously in Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. The collection contains most of the splendid facsimiles of Blake's works done by Trianon Press.

Other interesting works of this period include Dr. Syntax in Paris, or, A Tour in Search of the Grotesque (1820); The Croppy, a novel by John Banim in both the London edition (1828) and the Philadelphia edition (1828); two books of pastoral poetry by Robert Bloomfield (1800 and 1813); and works by "Miss Balfour," Thomas Campbell, George Crabbe, Thomas DeQuincey, Charles Dibdin, Pierce Egan, William Godwin, James Henry Lee Hunt, Mary Leadbeater, Thomas Moore, Amelia Opie, Robert Pollok, Anna Maria Porter, Jane Porter, Samuel Rogers, Henry Rowe, Francis Barry Boyle St. Leger, John Styles, "Charlotte Elizabeth," and Jane West.

Return to Index

Mid-Nineteenth Century

The middle part of the century sees a large number of first editions in this collection. Robert Browning is well represented with early editions of Men and Women (Boston, 1856), The Ring and the Book (1868-69), Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangen, Saviour of Society (1871), and Paechiarotto (1876). An 1898 edition of Men and Women is a beautiful example of Arts and Crafts printing by Cobden-Sanderson's Doves Press. The 1910 edition of Pied Piper of Hamelin is illustrated by Kate Greenaway. The Rare Book Collection offers five serialized novels that first appeared in nineteen to twenty-one monthly parts. Three are novels by Charles Dickens: Nicholas Nickleby (1838-39), David Copperfield (1849-50), and Little Dorritt (1855-57). The collection is strong in first editions by Dickens, which include The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (1837), Oliver Twist (1838), Nicholas Nickleby (1839), Master Humphrey's Clock (1841), Martin Chuzzlewit (1844), Dombey and Son (1848), David Copperfield (1850), Bleak House (1853), Little Dorritt (1857), Our Mutual Friend (1865), and The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870). A number of first American editions of Dickens are also present. His collected works include the 1881-82 "Extra Illustrated Edition" in sixty volumes; and The Nonesuch Dickens (1937-38) in twenty-five volumes. The other serialized novels are Thackeray's The Newcomes (1853-55) and The Virginians (1858-59). The library also has eight first editions by Thackeray.

Other authors of the mid-Victorian period represented in the collection are Barham (The Ingoldsby Legends, 1840), Disraeli, Boucicault, Carlyle (Sartor Resartus by Doves Press, 1907), Clare, Collins (A Woman in White, New York, 1860), Eliot (The Spanish Gypsy. A Poem., Boston, 1868), Lever (his works in thirty-four volumes, 1876), Bulwer-Lytton (his novels in thirty-two volumes of a finely bound edition limited to twenty-six lettered copies), Mayhew, Martineau, Lady Morgan, John Henry Newman, "E.P.," Reach, Ruskin (his works, thirty-nine volumes in seventy, 1903-12), Smedley, Surtees, Tennyson (including In Memorium, 1854; Idylls of the King, 1859; and 1868 Poems with double fore-edge paintings), Thompson, and White. The collection has four volumes of Hood's Comic Annual published from 1836 to 1842. The work of the reknowned Victorian illustrator, George Cruikshank, appears in three works by himself (including Illustrations of Sir Walter Scott's Demonology and Witchcraft, 1835) and volumes by the following authors: Egan (Life in London, 1821), Mayhew (1851: Or, The Adventures of Mr. and Mrs. Sandboys and Family, Who Came up to London to "Enjoy Themselves," and to See the Great Exhibition, 1851), Smedley, and White. Other important illustrators appearing in the collection are H. K. Browne ("Phiz"), Edward Byrne-Jones, Laurence Housman, John Leech, Kate Greenaway, Arthur Rackham, Charles Ricketts, John Tenniel, Hugh Thomson, and Jack Yeats.

Return to Index

Late Nineteenth Century

The latter nineteenth century is represented by the following authors: Blackmore (Fringilla, or, Tales in Verse, an Arts and Crafts book printed in Cleveland, 1895), Bridges, Carmen, Carroll, Dobson, Doyle (three first editions of Sherlock Holmes stories), Du Maurier, Grahame, Haggard, Hardy (Tess of the D'urbervilles, 1891), Hopkins , both A. E. and Laurence Housman, Kipling (fifteen early American editions), Meredith, Morris (thirteen volumes by his Kelmscott Press, including the Kelmscott Chaucer), Parker, Patmore (The Angel in the House, Boston, 1856), Rolfe, Rossetti (including the Pre-Raphaelite literary magazine, The Germ, 1850), Schreiner, Sharpe, Shaw, Stevenson (20 first or early editions), Swinburne, Synge (including The Aran Islands illustrated by Jack Yeats, 1907), Thompson, Wilde (The Ballad of Reading Gaol, 1898), and Yeats (many early editions and all of the Cuala Press editions).

Return to Index

Women Authors

Women authors represented in this collection include the following: Agnew, Aikin, Bailie, Cameron, Dickens, Edgeworth, Fullterton, Gilbert, Gregory, Hensley, Hinkson, Huntingtower, Hutten, Knight, Leadbeater, Mant, Martineau, Meynell, Morgan, Nairne, Opie, O'Meara, Paget, Anna Maria and Jane Porter, Radcliffe, Schreiner, Shorter, "Charlotte Elizabeth," Watson, and West.

Return to Index

Irish Authors

Irish authors include Banim, Balfour, Boucicault, Edgeworth, Geoghegan, Gregory, Leadbeater, Lever, Moore, O'Meara, Synge, Wilde, and Yeats. Works by Irish authors are added continually to the collections.

Return to Index

Prepared by Laura Fuderer, August 1997