[ROMANOVS – ALEXANDER II] – SHVETSOV, Gordei Mikhaïlovich
Sochineniia russkogo poeta prostoliudina [Title on cover] [Works of the Russian Common-Man Poet]
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 K. R. [Konstantin ROMANOV]. Poems and New Poems, in the original Russian, bound together. St. Petersburg, 1889. #2](https://www.pyrarebooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/2874_1-300x374.jpg)
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]
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.
BRODSKII, Iosif [also Joseph BRODSKY]
Stikhotvoreniia i poemy [Verses and Poems]
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 TOLSTOY, Zhivoi Trup [A Living Corpse], first book edition in the original Russian, Moscow, 1912 #1](https://www.pyrarebooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/1054-300x400.jpg)
TOLSTOY, Lev Nikolaevich [TOLSTOI]
Zhivoi trup. Drama v 6 deistviyakh i 12 kartinakh [A Living Corpse. A drama in 6 acts and 12 scenes]
First separate edition of Tolstoy's play, a large-format quality production, with illustrations. A lovely example, unopened in the charming art-nouveau wrappers. Tolstoy wrote in his diary, "that in A Living Corpse there are notes inspired by Chekhov's work. Such is the secret of artistic creativeness".
First complete edition of Dostoevsky's famous work, here in a contemporary Russian binding and good condition.
An exceptionnally rare French publication in Russia at the heart of the Golden Age and a few years before Custine's famous travel, with a long preface expressing the author's political views. With great provenance and finely bound.
![Image for V. SIRIN [NABOKOV]. Korol, Dama, Valet. First edition, Berlin, 1928. #2](https://www.pyrarebooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/2648_1-300x300.jpg)
SIRIN, V. [pseud. for Vladimir NABOKOV]
Korol, Dama, Valet [King, Queen, Knave]
Early Nabokov: a pleasant example of the novel's first edition, in the original Russian.
TOLSTOY, Lev Nikolaevich, Anna SEIRON [SEURON] and Nadezhda ZHIVAGO (artist)
Nikolai Palkin. Rabotnik Emelian i pustoi baraban. Dorogo Stoit [BOUND WITH:] Shest let v dome grafa Lva Nikolaievicha Tolstogo [AND WITH:] Assiriiskii tsar Assarkhadon. Tri voprosa [Nikolai "The Beater". Emelian the Worker and the Empty Drum. Too Dear! [BOUND WITH:] Six Years at the Household of the Count Tolstoy [BOUND WITH:] The Assyrian King Assarkhadon. Three questions]
Banned works, illustrated tales, and memoirs of his household: a fine group of works by and about Tolstoy, most in first editions in Russian.
An inscribed copy of Parnok's last collection of verses: a very rare work by a Russian woman standing out in the literary landscape of the country.
![Image for GOGOL. Mertvie dushi [Dead Souls]. First edition. Moscow, 1842 #2](https://www.pyrarebooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/2250_1-300x469.jpg)
A pinacle of humour and Russia's second great novel (after Lermontov's 'Hero of our Times'), here in a fine example of the first edition, with the very rare and famous upper wrapper.
SHKLOVSKII, Viktor and El LISITSKII [LISSITZKY] (artist)
Zoo. Pisma ne o liubvi ili tretia Eloiza [Zoo. Letters Not About Love or the Third Eloise]
Cover design by El Lissitzky for this depiction of the Russian emigration in Berlin in the Golden Twenties. The preferred first edition, rarer than the Russian one published shortly afterwards.
[DICKENS] – PLESHCHEEV, Aleksei Nikolaevich
Zhizn Dikkensa [The Life of Dickens]
Rare first significant biography of the great Victorian author in Russian, written by an active (and politically engaged) man of letters. First book edition. Apparently no copy in Britain, only at the NYPL and in Sidney outside Russia.
Pleasant example, finely bound with the original wrappers, of this important short story by one of the greatest Russian authors. First issue of the first edition.
Un des meilleurs romans de la littérature russe traduit en français - un bon exemplaire en chemise d'éditeur de la première édition de cette importante traduction.