Banned books | PY Rare Books

Image for Bulgakov, Heart of a Dog, first publication in Russian, Flegon, 1968. #1

U-u-u-u-u-u....: the first publication

Sobache serdtse [Heart of a Dog]

£1,000

U-u-u-u-u-u....: the first publication
BULGAKOV, Mikhail. Sobache serdtse. [Heart of a Dog]
Published/created in: 1968

£1,000

First publication in Russian of Bulgakov's suppressed satirical masterpiece, banned in Soviet Union until 20 years later.

Image for SVITKOV, Masontsvo, Russian Masonry, Sao Paulo, 1964 #1

Out of stock

In South America after Paris

SVITKOV, Nikolai [pseud. for Nikolai STEPANOV]

Masonstvo v Russkoi Emigratsii [Freemasonry in Russian emigration].

In South America after Paris
SVITKOV, Nikolai [pseud. for Nikolai STEPANOV]. Masonstvo v Russkoi Emigratsii. [Freemasonry in Russian emigration].
Published/created in: 1964

£85

Uncommon second edition of Svitkov's main work on Russian Masonry, published in Brazil.

Image for Akhmatova, Beg vremeni, 1965, first edition with dust-jacket #2

Out of stock

With the dust-jacket

AKHMATOVA, Anna

Beg vremeni [The Flight of Time]

With the dust-jacket
AKHMATOVA, Anna. Beg vremeni. [The Flight of Time]
Published/created in: 1965

£145

First edition of Akhmatova's last book published during her lifetime, and the most complete collection of her poems to that date, with many published here for the first time. Complete with the dust-jacket illustrated with Modigliani's portrait of the great Russian poetess.

Image for Akhmatova, U samogo moria, first edition, 1921 #2

Out of stock

A Black Sea youth

AKHMATOVA, Anna

U samogo moria [At the Edge of the Sea]

A Black Sea youth
AKHMATOVA, Anna. U samogo moria. [At the Edge of the Sea]
Published/created in: 1921

£850

A fine example of the first edition of this important autobiographical poem by one of the best Russian poets, and a victim of Soviet censorship.

Image for Five manuscript works in Russian from the time of Catherine the Great #1

Out of stock

Forbidden texts with provenance marks

MIKHAILOV, Kozma Afanasievich and other authors

[A Sammelband of Five Manuscript Works]

Forbidden texts with provenance marks
MIKHAILOV, Kozma Afanasievich and other authors. [A Sammelband of Five Manuscript Works].
Published/created in: [c. 1782-1815]

£8,500

Very rare manuscript collection of theological and philosophical texts, including some forbidden by Catherine the Great's government in the 1780s. Very well preserved in its contemporary binding. With a poem authored most likely by the compiler of the manuscript and dedicated to the opening of the bronze horseman, the celebrated monument to Peter the Great inaugurated by Catherine in St. Petersburg.

Image for HERVEY and NILOVA, Meditations, first edition in Russian, Novikov, 1782 #1

Out of stock

An English best-seller in 18th-c. Russia

HERVEY, James, and Elizaveta NILOVA (transl.)

Nadgrobnyia razmyshlenia [Meditations among the Tombs]

An English best-seller in 18th-c. Russia
HERVEY, James, and Elizaveta NILOVA (transl.). Nadgrobnyia razmyshlenia. [Meditations among the Tombs]
Published/created in: 1782

£1,950

First Russian edition of an English 'graveyard' literary work: by a female translator, dedicated to a woman, and later confiscated by Catherine the Great. Very rare.

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