Rare books from Rooke Books

London: Chapman and Hall, 1871-1880. First edition. Paperback. Good. 10.5" by 8". Phiz. An extensive run of the 'Household Edition' of Charles Dickens' works, scarce in the original parts. This was the first edition of Dickens' works issued posthumously. First thus, the first 'Household Edition' of Dickens' works whereby Chapman and Hall commissioned new illustrations for the works and feature Forster's 'Life of Dickens' as the final volume. For this edition Chapman and Hall commissioned new illustrations. (Gimbel D66). This edition was intended as a library edition for the every-day household. Its serialised publication format meant that less affluent families could own the entire twenty-two volumes with the cost spread over a lengthy period of time. Collated, Lacking parts 91 and 93. With the original adverts bound in still, including a pamphlet regarding the publication of Gustave Dore's 'Dante'. Contemporaneously, an American edition of this work was published by Harper and… Read More

London: Macmillan and Co., 1881. Cloth. Good. 7.5" by 5". John Tenniel . A scarce early edition of this highly influential work of children's fiction, complete with the original charming illustrations by John Tenniel. With publisher's advertisement to the rear of the work. Sixty Seventh Thousand. Complete, with forty two charming illustrations by John Tenniel depicting the many much-loved scenes including The Mad Hatter's Tea Party and The White Rabbit looking at his pocket watch. Upon the original publication of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in 1865, Tenniel was far more well-known than Carroll, owing to his successful career as an illustrator and cartoonist, including many pieces for the satirical periodical 'Punch'. Tenniel also illustrated the sequel, 'Alice Through The Looking Glass' and the coloured revised illustrations for 'The Nursery Alice'. Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson) was a mathematician and author best known for this work, and its sequel 'Alice Through the… Read More

London: Black, Young and Young, 1831-2. Leather. Very Good. 11" by 8.5". None. An attractive first UK edition of this famous dictionary, in a uniform leather binding. The first UK edition, reprinted by E H Barker from a copy communicated by the author and containing manuscript corrections and additions. Complete in two volumes. 'Intended to exhibit I. The origin and affinities of every English word. II. The orthography and the pronunciation of words. III. Accurate and discriminating definitions. To which are prefixed an introductory dissertation on the origin, history, and connection of the languages of western Asia and of Europe; and a concise grammar.' With an ink inscription that states 'Given to Wm Layton Lowndes' who has charmingly unabbreviated some column heading works in the text. Webster's Dictionary, which first appeared in 1828 in America, has remained the standard dictionary in the United States. Webster's Dictionary sought to differentiate itself from the standard English… Read More

London: Macmillan, 1891-3. Leather. Very Good. 9" by 6". None. The second edition of the well regarded 'Wright' edition of Shakespeare. 1891 (Vols I - IV) 1892 (Vols V - VIII) 1893 (Vol IX). Finely bound volumes in half leather with gilt decoration to the spines, marble paper pastedowns and marbled foredge. William Aldis Wright (1831 - 1914), was an English writer and editor. This is the second and best edition of the very well regarded 'Wright' Shakespeare. "The Works of William Shakespeare (1863-6), edited by William George Clark, with at first W. Aldis Wright and later John Glover as collaborators, was published in nine volumes by Macmillan, but printed at the University Press, so that it became known as the Cambridge Shakespeare. This important edition was based on a "thorough collation of the four Folios and of all the Quarto editions of the separate plays, and of subsequent editions and commentaries" (preface), so that in textual matters it constitutes a virtual… Read More

London: The Nonesuch Press, 1931. First edition. Leather. Fine. 11" by 6.5". None. A fine, limited edition set of Pope's translation of the Iliad and the Odyssey with excellent provenance. Limited edition, With Homer numbered 1051 and The Iliad numbered 1196. With text in both Latin and Greek. The Nonesuch Press specialised in limited edition and private press. They were founded by Francis Meynell, his second wife Vera Mendel and their friend David Garnett. Their aspiration was for their publications to be aligned with the same aesthetic standards as the private press movement. They were unusual as they used a small Albion press to design the books, but had them printed by commercial printers. In doing so, books with the quality of a fine-press were produced, but available to a wider audience at lower prices. The 'Iliad' and 'Odyssey' are central to the genre of ancient Greek Literature. The 'Iliad' is set during the Trojan War and The 'Odyssey' focuses on the ten year journey home of… Read More

Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1770-1771. Leather. Good Only. 13" by 9.5". Hubert Gravelot; Francis Hayman. A beautifully illustrated set of William Shakespeare's works. Noted for the beautiful engravings which were created by Gravelot after Hayman under supervision of the editor. An miportant and scarce six volume set of Shakespeare's works, with full page illustrations. Volume I also has the Alexander Pope's preface and Rowe's important life of Shakespeare. This is the second edition of Sir Thomas Hamner's Shakespeare, which was originally published in 1743-4. With two portraits of Shakespeare, and eight further plates to volume I, seven plates to volume II, six plates to volume III, five plates to volume IV, six plates to volume V, with five plates to volume VI. With thirty-nine plates total including the frontispiece and second engraved portrait of Shakespeare. Prior owner's inscription to the title page of all volumes, Owen Owen Oxon 1820. Volume I : The Tempest, A Midsummer… Read More

London: Secker & Warburg, 1950. Cloth. Very Good Indeed/Fair. 7.5" by 5.5". None. An uncommon fourth impression of this important and thought-provoking work, with the original dust wrapper preserved. George Orwell was the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair (1903-1950), an English novelist, essayist and critic. His works were often social commentaries arguing against totalitarianism in support of democratic socialism. The adjective 'Orwellian' describes totalitarian and authoritarian social practices, and many of his neologisms, such as 'Big Brother' and 'Thought Police' are in common use in the English language. This work is Orwell's final work and is a dystopian science fiction novel, first published by Secker & Warburg in 1949. Its events follow Winston Smith as he dreams of rebellion in an imagined version of the year 1984, in which government surveillance and propaganda are rife during ongoing war.This is a fourth impression of the first edition, complete with the dust wrapper preserved. In… Read More

London: George Allen and Unwin, 1961 . Cloth. Good. 9" by 5.5". None. The complete set of this early impression of the trilogy 'The lord of the Rings' by J R R Tolkien. The eleventh impression of The Fellowship of the Ring, the eighth impression of The Two Towers, and of The Return of the King, a set published in 1961. The complete trilogy of early printings of one of the most celebrated juvenile works of fiction ever written, selling over one hundred and fifty million copies and counting, and inspiring works of music, artworks, films, television, video games, board games, and much more. It has been translated into at least thirty eight languages. Originally written as a sequel to his children's work The Hobbit, the trilogy developed into a much larger work. An epic high fantasy series by popular author J R R Tolkien. Following the adventures of Frodo the Hobbit and his friends as they go on a quest to rid the world of the evil power of the One Ring of Sauron and facing many obstacles. With… Read More

New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1946. Cloth. Near Fine/Very Good. 7.5" by 5". None. An early American edition of George Orwell's controversial politically satirical novel, this edition being printed in the same year as the first American edition. In the original dustwrapper. Early American edition, published in the same year as the first American edition, this copy without the statement 'first American edition' to the copyright page. However, this copy does not state any other subsequently printings to the copyright page, so it's likely that this is the second printing.In the original unclipped dustwrapper. This is an early issue dustwrapper, without the price to the front flyleaf, and without 'printed in the USA' to the rear flyleaf.An early edition of George Orwell's monumental satirical allegorical novella. Set on a farm, Orwell looks at a group of farm animals who rebel against their human farmer, reflecting the events leading up to the 1917 Russian Revolution to the Stalinist era of the… Read More

New York, Evanston, and London: Harper & Row, 1964. First edition. Hardback. Near Fine/Very Good Indeed. 9" by 7". Shel Silverstein. A lovely first impression copy of Shel Silverstein's important and influential children's novel, illustrated by Silverstein throughout, in an early impression dust wrapper. The first edition, first impression of this work, with the four line colophon to the copyright page. The dust wrapper is not the first issue dust wrapper, with the price $2.95 and not $2.50. Thus the dust wrapper is an early issue, possibly the second.In the original clipped dust wrapper, however the price is not clipped.'The Giving Tree' is a classic American children's fantasy picture book, following the relationship of an apple tree and a young boy who grows into adulthood.Though it was popular when published, this work also garnered a lot of controversy, with people debating whether the relationship between the boy and tree is positive or abusive. There are many different interpretations of the… Read More

New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1946. First edition. Cloth. Very Good Indeed/Good. 7.5" by 5". None. A first impression of the U.S. edition of George Orwell's groundbreaking satirical work, an important twentieth century novella. The first U.S. edition, first impression of this work, with 'First American Edition' and 'Printed in the United States of America' to the reverse of the title page, and the dust wrapper priced at $1.75 to the front flyleaf and without 'printed in the USA' statement to the rear wrap.In the original unclipped dust wrapper.George Orwell's monumental satirical allegorical novella. Set on a farm, Orwell looks at a group of farm animals who rebel against their human farmer, reflecting the events leading up to the 1917 Russian Revolution to the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union.Orwell wrote this controversial novella during the period of World War Two in which Britain was in alliance with the Soviet Union against the Nazis. Orwell was distinctly critical of Stalin, the… Read More

London: The Hogarth Press, 1931. First edition. Cloth. Near Fine/Very Good. 7.5" by 5". Vanessa Bell. A nice first edition copy of this experimental novel by Virginia Woolf, one of her most puzzling publications, here in the original beautifully designed dust wrapper by Vanessa Bell. The first edition, first impression of this work.In the original Vanessa Bell designed unclipped dust wrapper.One of the experimental novels of Virginia Woolf, following six narrators from childhood to adulthood through a series of soliloquies, ruminating on the concepts of individuality, self, and community. Readers can see some of Woolf's friends in her characters in this novel; in particular E. M. Forster in the writer Bernard, T. S. Eliot in the outsider Louis, Lytton Strachey in Neville, Mary Hutchinson in the socialite Jinny, Vanessa Bell, in the fleeing Susan, and Thoby Stephen in the flawed and never narrator Percival.Written by the Bloomsbury author Virginia Woolf, a central figure of the literary group,… Read More

London: For the Proprietor , 1810. Leather. Good. 11" by 8.5". Not Stated. An early edition of Ebenezer Sibly's Occult herbal with beautifully illustrated hand-coloured plates. A fascinating late eighteenth-century philosophic work synthesising spirituality, natural philosophy, and medical theory, and presenting a theory of medicine that views the human body as a composite of the four elements (earth, wind, water, and fire). This work attempts to synthesise older medical views with Enlightenment insights into the physical universe. Together, this is bound with a lengthy appendix to 'Culpeper's British Herbal'. Written by eighteenth-century English physician and astrologer Ebenezer Sibly, well-known for his early modern esoteric works such as this one. Known as the Occult herbal. An early edition of this work, originally published in 1792. Including fourteen hand-coloured engraved plates. Collated, lacking pages 9 to 24.A fascinating and uncommon esoteric late eighteenth-century work. Bound in… Read More

London : Cassell and Company, 1907. First edition. Cloth. Very Good. 9" by 7". Charles Robinson. A wonderful, first illustrated Cassell edition of Alice's Adventure's in Wonderland, with colour plates. This is a first UK edition of this illustrated edition published by Cassell and Company. Stated as first impression, November 1907 to the edition page. This volume of the hugely popular tale, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, reimagines the story with beautiful and colour illustrations by Charles Robinson. This edition is notably the first illustrated edition to feature Alice with short hair. This version of Alice with short hair was possibly due to the publication of Lewis Carroll's photograph of Alice Liddell with a bob haircut. With seven colour plates and colour frontispiece and many other illustrations throughout the text.Collated, complete.This is an especially hard first edition format of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland to find. This first edition is special as the reprints of this work… Read More

Paris: Shakespeare and Company, 1924 . Paperback. Good Only. 8.5" by 7". None. The uncommon September 1924 fifth printing of of James Joyce's modernist masterpiece, in the publisher's original paper wraps. Published two years after the first edition, this is the fifth printing overall of Joyce's magnum opus, and the third from Shakespeare and company.Joyce's novel chronicles the appointments and encounters of the itinerant Leopold Bloom in Dublin in the course of an ordinary day, on the 16 June 1904, mirroring Homer's 'Odyssey', and termed 'a divine work of art' by Nabokov.Four pages of errata appear to the rear of this volume. These identify corrections to errors that had appeared in earlier editions, including some corrections that had not been made to the fourth printing, produced earlier in the same year. This errata, therefore, offers unique insight into Joyce's creative process and textual revisions.A smart copy of this important early printing of Joyce's major work of modernist literature. In… Read More