Updates
Introducing our New Department: Rare Science Books
by Laura Massey
Science Specialist Laura Massey introduces and gives an overview of eight new Science Categories Available to browse on our website.
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In our own celebration of imaginary realms and stories, we have unearthed some of our most rare and intriguing and fantastical books, authors and items:
1. Paradise Lost. A Poem in Ten Books, by John Milton, first edition, 1669.
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One of the exhibition’s many striking exhibits includes an edition of Milton’s Paradise Lost illustrated by Gustave Doré. Paradise Lost has been published in countless editions since its first appearance in print in 1667, with Doré producing his distinctive illustrations in 1866. Sold over several years, the first edition of Milton’s work had its title page periodically updated, with a 1669 version on our shelves.
2. The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka, translated by A.L. Lloyd, 1937.
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Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, opens, infamously, with Gregor Samsa who ‘awoke one morning from a troubled dream’ and ‘found himself changed in his bed to some monstrous kind of vermin’. An attractive copy of Kafka’s tale of alienation, human consciousness and social anxiety, in its scarce cellophane dustjacket. The striking initial scene is also here beautifully illustrated by Daniel Rohan Eason in My First Kafka from the British Library exhibition.
3. Autograph letter signed by J.R.R. Tolkien, 1973
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Tolkien memorabilia and texts feature prominently in the British Library exhibition, which includes a first edition of The Hobbit and items from the Peter Jackson adaptations of The Lord of the Rings. The range of translations and adaptions of Tolkien’s work is a testament to his enduring popularity today.
4. The Book of The Thousand Nights and a Night [with] the Supplemental Nights, by Richard Burton, c. 1903.
![The Book of The Thousand Nights and a Night [with] the Supplemental Nights | Richard Burton | Shapero Rare Books](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0733/4694/1233/files/106527_7_2106x950_a07ed326-084d-40d2-81b1-07beebed6faf_600x600.webp?v=1706199412)
Number 12 of a thousand copies of Burton’s translation, which, due to the explicit references in the source material and Burton’s discussion of them, was made available only to a limited number of subscribers. The story of One Thousand and One Nights is another widely adapted tale whose influence stretches across the borders of different nations. One such adaptation entitled 1001 Fantasy Pop Nights, is displayed in the British Library exhibition.
5. Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens by J.M. Barrie, illustrated by Arthur Rackham, 1906.
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Arthur Rackham’s illustrated edition of Peter Pan in Kensington gardens, as seen in the British Library’s exhibition. Rackham’s pen and ink and watercolour illustrations, as well as his fantastical subject matter, make him a recognisable illustrator even to the present day.
6. The Ingoldsby Legends or Mirth & Marvels, by Thomas Ingoldsby, illustrated by Arthur Rackham, 1907.
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Now on sale, a Rackham illustrated edition of The Ingoldsby Legends, signed by Rackham, with tipped-in colour plates and black and white illustrations in the artist’s distinctive style.
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