Literature: Russian and neighbours | PY Rare Books

Image for L. TOLSTOY. Kritika dogmaticheskogo bogosloviia [Critique of Dogmatic Theology]. First edition, rare. Geneva, 1891-96. #2

First copy on the market in 40 years

Kritika dogmaticheskago bogosloviia [Critique of Dogmatic Theology]

Obshchee delo for M. Elpidine, Geneve, 1891-6. £3,750

Rare first edition of Tolstoy's important critical religious text, published in Geneva as it was impossible to have it authorised in the Russian empire. No copy traced on the market in recent decades - this one a pleasant example.

Image for JABOTINSKY, V. Piatero, rare first edition in original Russian, 1936. #2

Odessa sung by her celebrated Zionist son

ZHABOTINSKII, V. (ALTALENA) [also JABOTINSKY]

Piatero [The Five]

Parizh, Ars, 1936. £4,950

Very rare first edition of Jabotinsky's best novel: one of 75 copies on papier Japon, out of a total printrun of only 125 copies. A fine novel about Jabotinsky's native city in Ukraine, Odessa, far from his important Zionist militant activities. In original Russian.

Image for TSVETAEVA, M. Poet i vremia. First edition. Prague, 1932. #2

The great poetess' comments on poetry

TSVETAEVA, Marina Ivanovna

Poet i vremia [The Poet and Time]

Volia Rossii, Prague, 1932. £650

Scarce first publication of Tsvetaeva's important essay on poetry.

Image for J. BRODSKY. Two volumes of poetry. First editions, inscribed. Ann Arbor, 1977. #2

Nobel-Prize winning poetry pre- and post-emigration - "avec best pozhelaniiami"

BRODSKII, Iosif [also Joseph BRODSKY]

Konets prekrasnoi epokhi. Stikhotvoreniia 1964-1971 [with] Chast rechi. Stikhotvoreniia 1972-1976 [The End of a Beautiful Era. Poems 1964-1971 [with] Part of Speech. Poems 1972-1976].

Ardis, Ann Arbor, 1977. £7,750

Great gathering of both volumes, in first editions, both inscribed to Vandelos-Legkaia, a figure of the Russian community in the USA.

Image for S. DOVLATOV. Marsh odinikikh. First edition, inscribed. Holyoke, 1983. #2

A chronicle of the early 1980s in the US Russian community

DOVLATOV, Sergei

Marsh odinokikh [The March of the Lonely]

Holyoke, New England Publishing Co, 1983. £2,250

First edition thus, inscribed to a fellow journalist and author.

Image for S. DOVLATOV. Nashi [Ours]. First edition, inscribed. Ann Arbor, 1983. #2

"One only wants to be like Chekhov"

DOVLATOV, Sergei

Nashi [Ours]

Ardis, Ann Arbor, 1983. £2,500

First edition of this collection of short stories by the famous Russian author. An appealing example, inscribed by Dovlatov to a figure of the US Russian emigration.

Image for S. DOVLATOV. Zona. First edition, inscribed. Ann Arbor, 1982. #2

His "most important book" - inscribed

DOVLATOV, Sergei

Zona: zapiski nadziratelia [The Zone: A Prison Camp Guard's Story]

Ermitazh, Ann Arbor, 1982. £3,000

First edition Dovlatov's famous work, inscribed to a figure of the Russian emigration in the US.

Image for I. ERENBURG. Poems. First edition, Paris, 1910. #2

A review copy of his rare first book

ERENBURG, Ilia Grigorevich

Stikhi [Poems]

Parizh, [privately printed for the author], 1910. £1,500

An interesting, annotated example of this first edition of Erenburg's first book, here in its original wrappers. Rarely found - one of 100 copies only.

Image for NARBUT & KRYLOV. Basni [Fables]. Knebel, Moscow, 1912, first edition with these illustrations. #2

Fables in silhouette

NARBUT, Egor (artist) and Ivan Andreevich KRYLOV

Basni Krylova [Krylov's Fables]

Knebel, Moskva, [1912]. £850

Some of the most famous Russian fables here illustrated by the leading Ukrainian artist. Scarce in this lovely condition.

Image for ZIDE [SIEDE] & GROMOV, Nezhnyia obiatiia v brake... First edition, St. Petersburg, 1798. #2

Tender Embraces in Marriage - or Pastime with Venal Mistresses? Fine copy of a famous rarity

[ZIDE, Iogann Khristoforovich [Johann Christian SIEDE] and Gleb GROMOV (translator)]

Nezhnyia obiatiia v brake i potekhi s liubovnitsami (prodazhnymi) izobrazheny i sravneny pravdoliubom [Tender Embraces in Marriage and Pastime with (Venal) Mistresses, Depicted and Compared by a Truth Seeker]

Shnor, Skt. Peterburg, [1798]. £9,500

A risqué book for Russian readers of the 1800s onwards, celebrated as a rarity by many bibliographers. A lovely copy of the first edition, in contemporary binding and fine condition.

Image for S. ESENIN. Poems of Scandalist. First edition, in Russian. Berlin, 1923. #2

My best poems - in Isadora Duncan's company

ESENIN, Sergei (also Sergei YESENIN)

Stikhi skandalista [Poems of a Scandalist]

Nakanune for Blagov, Berlin, 1923. £3,500

Pleasant example of the frst edition of this important collection. With a famous cycle, banned in the USSR. Published in Berlin but scarce on the market outside Russia.

Image for G. SHVETSOV. Three works on Tsar Alexander II and Russia, inscribed to Olga Aleksandrovna. St. Petersburg, 1884-87. #2

Inscribed by the liberated serf to the Tsar's natural daughter

[ROMANOVS – ALEXANDER II] – SHVETSOV, Gordei Mikhaïlovich

Sochineniia russkogo poeta prostoliudina [Title on cover] [Works of the Russian Common-Man Poet]

Dobrodeev, Skt. Peterburg, 1887, 1884 and 1885. £4,750

A fascinating volume concentrating various aspects of Tsar Alexander's II legacy, with poems celebrating his achievements, written by a former, freed serf and inscribed to the tsar's daughter with his mistress. An exceptional copy.

Image for B. PASTERNAK. Selected Poems. First edition, Moscow, 1926. In wrappers. #2

First poetry collection of a future Nobel Prize

PASTERNAK, Boris

Izbrannye stikhi [Selected Poems]

Uzel, Moskva, 1926. £950

Superb copy of this early collection of Pasternak's poems. First edition, scarce outside Russia.

Image for K. R. [Konstantin ROMANOV]. Poems and New Poems, in the original Russian, bound together. St. Petersburg, 1889. #2

The most august of Russian poets

K. R. [pseud. for Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich ROMANOV]

Stikhotvoreniia K. R.: 1879-1885 [bound with] Novye stikhotvoreniia K. R.: 1886-1888 [Poems of K. R.: 1879-1885, bound with: New Poems of K. R.: 1886-1888]

Iz gos. tip., Skt. Peterburg, 1889. £1,450

Two volumes in one of the lyrics of Grand Duke Konstantin Romanov. A friend of Tchaikovsky and key patron of the arts in the last decades of the Russian Empire, the Grand Duke concealed his poetical activities behind the initials "K. R.". A fine example of these rare editions.

Image for A. AKHMATOVA. 50 Stikhotvorenii [50 Poems]. Paris, 1963. In fine condition. #2

Unauthorised edition

AKHMATOVA, Anna

50 stikhotvorenii [50 poems]

Paris, YMCA-Press, 1963. £650

Fine copy, in its original printed wrappers, of this large-format edition of some of the poems of Russia's great poetess. Printed with a mimeograph machine.

Image for M. LOMONOSOV. Works in Verse, in the original Russian. St. Petersburg, 1893. #2

In the publisher's binding

LOMONOSOV, Mikhail Vasilevich

Sochineniia v stikhakh [Works in Verse]

Marks, Skt. Peterburg, 1893. £175

A lovely small volume with Lomonosov's poetical production. The binding remained fresh, which is unusual.

Image for J. BRODSKY. Verses and Poems, first edition in the original Russia. USA, 1965. #2

A Nobel Prize's first book

BRODSKII, Iosif [also Joseph BRODSKY]

Stikhotvoreniia i poemy [Verses and Poems]

Inter-Language Literary Associates, Washington, D.C.-New York, 1965. £750

First edition of an important start: the future nobel prize winner's first collection of poems that had to be published abroad after he was sentenced to five years of hard labor for "social parasitism" in 1964.

Image for KOTLIAREVSKY & BAZYLEVYCH. Eneida. Kyiv, 1971. #2

"The most popular edition [...] by the outstanding Ukrainian artist" (Lebedeva)

KOTLIAREVSKII, Ivan, Anatolii BAZYLEVYCH (artist)

Eneida [Aeneid]

Mystetstvo, Kyiv, 1971. £195

"The father of modern Ukrainian literature" in a very visual interpretation during Soviet times, by an important Ukrainian artist. Very rare in the West.

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