Bryn Mawr College Library Special Collections

Books on London

London in Literature

Bibliography

 

Beginning with The Workes of Beniamin Jonson of 1616--the first collected edition of his plays--the Books on London collection is rich in literary reflections on the British metropolis. At times the city plays the leading role and at other times merely provides the backdrop, the latter typically the case in Jonson's work. Forever linked with Jonson's name, London is clearly the setting in such plays as Every Man Out of His Humour, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair, all included in this edition.

Four eighteenth-century works of note in the collection are The Mohocks: a Tragi-Comical Farce (1712) and The Beggar's Opera (1728), both by English poet and dramatist John Gay, Adventures of David Simple (1744) by Sarah Fielding, and Sir John Vanbrugh's Provk'd Husband: or, A Journey to London (1791), the last a comedy adapted for theatrical presentation and published in John Bell's British Theatre. Gay's earlier work deals with the worst and last of the gangs of street bullies, the Mohocks, who terrorized London after the Restoration, and the later is a double allegory that cleverly satirizes London society and the corruptions of the governing class. Fielding, a Canadian writer and feminist who lived in London for many years, provided an accurate portrait of mid-eighteenth century London, while at the same time setting forth some provocative feminist ideas and a critique of imperialist relations.

The city of London is treated either directly or indirectly by a number of significant nineteenth-century authors found in the collection. In the poem Don Juan (1820-24) and the prologue to the play Pizarro, included in The Works of the Late Right Honourable Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1821), both Byron and Sheridan, respectively, refer to London's famous Hyde Park bridleway, Rotten Row. During its heyday in the eighteenth century, the Row was a popular place for fashionable upper class Londoners to ride and be seen. London is the setting for Charles Lamb's largely autobiographical Elia: Essays Which Have Appeared under that Signature in the London Magazine (1823) and works by Charles Dickens in the collection, including The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (1837), Oliver Twist (1838) and Bleak House (1852-53). Later in the century, Henry James produced several works in which the city again figured prominently; examples in Bryn Mawr's holdings are The Siege of London (1883), A London Life (1889) and Essays in London and Elsewhere (1893).

The twentienth century is also well represented in the London in Literature category. From playwright Bernard Shaw, the collection includes Press Cuttings: A Topical Sketch (1909), a play based on the editorial and correspondence columns of London's daily papers (1909) and Pygmalion (1916). Bryn Mawr's copy of Joseph Conrad's London's River (1919) is number eleven of twenty-five privately printed copies and the College's 1914 privately printed edition of G. K. Chesterton's London is signed inside by former owner Holbrook Jackson. Other significant works in the collection that are set in London are The Waste Land (1922) by T. S. Eliot, John Galsworthy's Forsyte Saga, and H. D.'s trilogy of civilian war poetry: The Walls Do Not Fall (1944), Tribute to the Angels (1945) and The Flowering of the Rod (1946). For Eliot, London was an "unreal city," whereas for H. D. the shattering impact of the London Blitz captured in her poetry was all too real.


Bibliography

Adcock, Arthur St. John, 1864-1930
London memories / by St. John Adcock ; with illustrations by Frederick Adcock
London : Hodder and Stoughton limited, [1931]
Uncat 12,142

Boucicault, Dion, 1820-1890
London assurance : A comedy, in five acts
New York : C. T. de Witt, c1877
Uncat 10,828

Byron, George Gordon Byron, Baron, 1788-1824
Don Juan
London : Printed by Thomas Davison, 1820-1824
821.2 B99d2

Byron, George Gordon Byron, Baron, 1788-1824
The works of Lord Byron: with his letters and journals, and his life, by Thomas Moore, esq
London, J. Murray, 1832-33
Uncat 12,812

Chesterton, G. K. (Gilbert Keith), 1874-1936
London / by G.K. Chesterton ; with ten photographs by Alvin Langdon Coburn
London : Privately printed for Alvin Langdon Coburn and Edmund D. Brooks & their friends, 1914
DA684 .C5 1914

Conrad, Joseph, 1857-1924
London's river / by Joseph Conrad
London : Privately printed by Clement Shorter, 1919
PR6005.O4 L55 1919

Davidson, John, 1857-1909
Fleet Street, and other poems
London : Grant Richards, 1909
821.2 D28fl

Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870
Bleak House / by Charles Dickens ; with illustrations by H. K. Browne
London : Bradbury & Evans, 1852-53
PR4556 .A1 1852

Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870
Oliver Twist; or, The parish boy's progress / By Boz
London : R. Bentley, 1838
PR4567 .A1 1838

Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870
The posthumous papers of the Pickwick club / by Charles Dickens. With forty-three illustrations, by R. Seymour and Phiz
London : Chapman and Hall, 1837
823 D55p Ed.1837

Duncan, Sara Jeannette, 1861-1922
An American girl in London, by Sara Jeannette Duncan; with eighty illustrations by F. H. Townsend
New York, D. Appleton, 1891 [c1891]
PR6005.O695 A4 1906

Duncan, Sara Jeannette, 1861-1922
Cousin Cinderella, by Mrs. Everard Cotes (Sara Jeannette Duncan)
New York, Macmillan, 1908
PR6005.O695 C6 1908

Eliot, George Edwin, 1864-
Three corners of London; random essays, by George E. Eliot
New York, 1928
PR110.L6 E6

Eliot, T. S. (Thomas Stearns), 1888-1965
The waste land / by T. S. Eliot ..
New York : Boni and Liveright, [c1922]
811 El4w

Ellis, Edward
Rook the robber : or, London fifty years ago / By the author of The Daughter of midnight.
London : John Dicks, [1864]
Uncat 8629

Feval, Paul, 1817-1887
The mysteries of London : a romance / translated from the French [of P. Feval] by Henry C. Deming
New York : Judd & Taylor, 1845
PQ2244.F2 M813 1845

Fielding, Sarah, 1710-1768
Adventures of David Simple : containing an account of his travels through the cities of London & Westminster in the search of a real friend ..
London, 1744
823 F46

Fielding, Sarah, 1714-1768
The adventures of David Simple : containing an account of his travels through the cities of London and Westminster in the search of a real friend / by Sarah Fielding ; with the preface of Henry Fielding and an introd. by E. A. Baker
London : Routledge ; New York : Dutton, 1904
I32791987

Galsworthy, John, 1867-1933
The Forsyte saga
New York : C. Scribner's Sons, 1925
Uncat 10,243

Gay, John, 1685-1732
The Beggar's opera: as it is acted at the Theatre-Royal in Lincolns-Inn-Fields / written by Mr. Gay
London : Printed for John Watts, 1728
M1503 .P4 B45 1728b

Gay, John, 1685-1732
The Mohocks: A tragi-comical farce. As it is acted near the Watch-House in Covent-Garden. By Her Majesty's servants.
London : Printed for Bernard Lintott ..., 1712
M1503 .P4 B45 1728b

Gay, John, 1685-1732
Trivia, or, The art of walking the streets of London / by John Gay ; with introduction and notes by W.H. Williams
London ; D. O'Connor, 1922
I32423986

Gilbert, W. S. (William Schwenck), 1836-1911
Lost Bab ballads, by W. S. Gilbert; collected, edited and illustrated by Townley Searle
London & New York, G. P. Putnam's sons, ltd., [1932]
PR4809 .H15 Z996265 1932

H. D. (Hilda Doolittle), 1886-1961
The flowering of the rod, by H. D.
London, New York, Oxford University Press, 1946
PS3507 .O726 F5 1946

H. D. (Hilda Doolittle), 1886-1961
The walls do not fall, by H. D.
London, New York, Oxford University Press, 1944
PS3507 .O726 W3 1944

H. D. (Hilda Doolittle), 1886-1961
Tribute to the angels / by H. D. [i.e. H. Doolittle]
London, New York, Oxford University Press, 1945
PS3507 .O726 T7 1945

Henty, G. A. (George Alfred), 1832-1902
A march on London : being a story of Wat Tyler's insurrection / by G.A. Henty ; with eight illustrations by W.H. Margetson
New York : C. Scribner's Sons, 1897 (New York : Trow Directory)
PR4785.H55 M37 1897

Henty, G. A. (George Alfred), 1832-1902
When London burned : a story of restoration times and the great fire / by G.A. Henty ; with twelve page illustrations by J. Finnemore
New York : C. Scribner's Sons, 1894 (Boston, Mass. : Norwood Press)
PR4785.H55 W486 1894

Horne, R. H. (Richard H.), 1802-1884
Memoirs of a London doll / written by herself. Edited by Mrs. Fairstar [pseud.] With four illustrations, by Miss Margaret Gillies
London : H. C. Bohn, 1855
823 H784m

Irving, William Henry
John Gay's London illustrated from the poetry of the time, by William Henry Irving
Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1928
PR561 .I7 1928

Jackson, Holbrook, 1874-1948
Town : an essay / by Holbrook Jackson
London : Printed by A.T. Stevens ... for R.H., L.F., and H.J., at the sign of Flying Fame, 1913
PR6019.A24 T6 1913

James, Henry, 1843-1916
A London life. The Patagonia. The liar. Mrs. Temperly
London, New York : Macmillan and Co. , 1889
PS2116 .L6 1889b

James, Henry, 1843-1916
A London life; The Patagonia; The liar; Mrs. Temperly, by Henry James
London, New York, Macmillan and co., 1889
PS2116 .L6 1889

James, Henry, 1843-1916
Essays in London and elsewhere, by Henry James
London, J. R. Osgood, McIlvaine & co., 1893
PS2120 .E7 1893b

James, Henry, 1843-1916
Essays in London and elsewhere, by Henry James
New York, Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1893
PS2120 .E7 1893

James, Henry, 1843-1916
The siege of London, The pension Beaurepas, and The point of view
Boston, Osgood, 1883
PS2116 .S5 1883

James, M. R. (Montague Rhodes), 1862-1936
Ghost-stories of an antiquary, by Montague Rhodes James
London, E. Arnold [1910]
PR4809.H15 Z999999 1910

Jonson, Ben, 1573?-1637
[Workes]
[London : Printed by Richard Bishop, 1640]
q822 J73

Jonson, Ben, 1573?-1637
The workes ... The second volume ..
London : Printed for Richard Meighen, 1640
q822 J73 Ed.1640

Jonson, Ben, 1573?-1637
The workes of Beniamin Jonson
London : imprinted by William Stansby, 1616
fPR2600 .C16 1616b

Lamb, Charles, 1775-1834
Elia : Essays which have appeared under that signature in the London Magazine
London, 1823
Uncat 995

Locker-Lampson, Frederick, 1821-1895
London lyrics
London : [C. Whittingham & Co.], 1881
Uncat 8237

Locker-Lampson, Frederick, 1821-1895
London lyrics, by Frederick Locker
London, W. Isbister, 1874
PR4891.L2 A7 1874

Mayhew, Augustus, 1826-1875
Paved with gold, or, The romance and reality of the London streets : an unfashionable novel / by Augustus Mayhew ; with illustrations by H.K. Browne
London : Chapman and Hall, 1858
I32417160

Miller, Thomas, 1807-1874
Picturesque sketches of London, past and present
London : Office of the National Illustrated Library, [1852]
Uncat 10,466

Morier, James Justinian, 1780?-1849
The adventures of Hajji Baba, of Ispahan, in England
London : R. Bentley, 1835
PR5059.M4 A75 1835

Bunch, Mother
The celebrated tales of Mother Bunch, as originally related
London, John Harris [ca. 1827]
PR4809.H15 Z887528 1827

O'Casey, Sean, 1880-1964
Within the gate : a play of four scenes in a London park
London : Macmillan, 1933
Uncat 10,262

Poole, John, 1786?-1872
Paul Pry, a comedy in three acts : as performed at the London and American theatres / by John Poole ; printed from the acting copy, with stage directions
New York : E. B. Clayton, [ca. 1833]
PR5189.P3 P3 1833

Reynolds, George W. M. (George William MacArthur), 1814-1879
The mysteries of London / by George W.M. Reynolds ; with seventy engravings on wood by G. Stiff
London : G. Vickers, 1845-1848
I3606161x

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. Spurious and doubtful works
London prodigal : a comedy
London, 1734
822 Si764

Shaw, Bernard, 1856-1950
Androcles and the lion; Overruled; Pygmalion
New York, Brentano's, 1916
PR5363 .A15 1916

Shaw, Bernard, 1856-1950
Press cuttings; a topical sketch, compiled from the editorial and correspondence columns of the daily papers, by Bernard Shaw; as performed by the Civic and Dramatic Guild at the Royal Court Theatre, London, on the 9th July, 1909
London, Constable, 1909
PR5363 .P6 1909

Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 1751-1816
The works of the late Right Honourable Richard Brinsley Sheridan ..
London : J. Murray, 1821
Uncat 5330

Slack-Davis
London and other poems / by Slack-Davis
Pittsburgh, Pa. : J.R. Weldin & Co., 1890
PS2859.S18 L6 1890

Stewart, E. M. (Elizabeth M.)
Whittington and the knight sans-terre : a tale of the Vintners' Company / [by E. M. Stewart]
London : Ingram, Cooke, [18--]
I36068482

Symons, Arthur, 1865-1945
London nights, by Arthur Symons
London, L. Smithers; New York, G. H. Richmond, 1896
PR5527 .L6 1896

Vanbrugh, John, Sir, 1664-1726
The provk'd husband : or, A journey to London. A comedy / by Sir John Vanbrugh & C. Cibber, edq. Adapted for theatrical representation ..
London : J. Bell, 1791
822.08 B41 v.18

Wright, Thomas, 1810-1877, ed
Anecdota literaria : a collection of short poems in English, Latin & French, illustrative of the literature & history of England in the 13th century & more especially of the condition & manners of the different classes of society; ed. fr. mss. at Oxford, London, Paris & Berne
London, 1844
808.1 W93

London : a descriptive poem : illustrated with engravings
London : Printed for William Darton, Jun. ... , 1812 [i.e. 1813]
dDA683 .L6 1813

The art of living in London : a poem
Southwark: : Printed for the author & I. Hatchard ..., [1805?]
PR4728.G285 A7 1805

The London carcanet, containing select passages from the most distinguished writers
New York, C.H. Peabody, 1831
AY13 .L75 1831




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