8 Antique Books, Victorian Literature & Children’s Classics — 1874–1888+ | Stowe, Hugo, Abbott, Hood, Beecher & More | Pretty & Seasonal Brown & Red Bindings

A beautiful stack of eight antique, 19th century books, with the sort of bindings that make a shelf of old books look especially good. The group spans everything from Victorian novels and poetry to children’s literature, biography, and history.

This collection includes By Woman’s Wit by Mrs. Alexander, published in New York by the International Book Company; Rollo in Holland by Jacob Abbott, published by The Henneberry Co. in Chicago in 1850; The Life of Henry Ward Beecher, published by Hurst & Co. in New York in 1888; Rollo on the Atlantic by Jacob Abbott, also from the Henneberry Co.; The Poetical Works of Thomas Hood, Vol. II: Humorous Poems, published by Porter & Coates in Philadelphia; Tom Brown at Oxford: A Sequel to School Days at Rugby by Thomas Hughes, published by the American News Company in New York in the People’s Edition, 1889; Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Poganuc People: Their Loves and Lives, illustrated and published by D. Lothrop & Co. in Boston in 1878; and Victor Hugo’s Ninety-Three, translated by Frank Lee Benedict and published by Harper & Brothers in New York in 1874. Poganuc People is a first edition, and the 1874 Ninety-Three is the first American edition

There’s a lot of variety here. Abbott’s Rollo books follow the young Rollo on his travels and were part of his enormously popular series of books for children, while Tom Brown at Oxford continues Thomas Hughes’s story of Tom Brown from his Rugby school days into university life. Stowe’s Poganuc People is a fictionalized look at New England life based in part on her own childhood in Connecticut, filled with village characters, local customs, church life, politics, and family life. The Thomas Hood volume is the humorous side of his poetry, while Hugo’s Ninety-Three is a very different kind of book—a dramatic novel set during the French Revolution. The Life of Henry Ward Beecher offers a look at the prominent 19th-century American preacher, and By Woman’s Wit is a Victorian novel by the prolific British writer Mrs. Alexander.

These books range from 5” x 7.5” to 5.25” x 8”. Condition varies from fair to great, as you’d expect from a group of books this old. The covers have varying degrees of age wear and soiling, with plenty of the surface wear and patina that come from decades of handling. There are inscriptions and library markings in some of the books. A few have loose endpapers and some binding issues, although the books remain generally intact. The pages have yellowed with age.