Editions originales | PY Rare Books

In contemporary binding

TURGENEV, Ivan Sergeevich

Nov [Virgin Soil]

Gerhard, Leipzig, 1877. £4,500

Pleasant example of this scarce and important Russian novel - first edition, printed outside Russia.

Image for KRYLOV, Ivan. Fables russes. Paris, Didot, 1825. Fine example. #2

Russian fables for Europe: illustrated and translated

KRYLOV – KRILOFF, Ivan Andreevich

Basni russkiia [...] Fables russes [...] imitées en vers Français et Italiens par divers auteurs

Didot for Bossange, Paris, 1825. £8,750

Attractive example of this famous edition of Russia's greatest fabulist, in Russian, French and Italian, with engraved plates. A luxury lifetime production, here particularly fresh.

Image for TSVETAEVA, BLOK, BELYI, VOLOSHIN... Antologiia. Musaget, Moscow, 1911. First edition. #2

With many important poets of the Silver Age

TSVETAEVA, Marina Ivanovna, et al

Antologiia [Anthology]

Musaget, Moskva, 1911. £1,000

The young Tsvetaeva among other greats: Blok, Belyi, Solovev, Voloshin etc. Her second appearance in print, and the first of two poems of hers. With the original printed wrappers.

Image for TOLSTOY, L. War and Peace - first two parts, first publication; Moscow, 1865-66. #2

War and Peace before War and Peace

TOLSTOY, Lev

Tysiacha vosemsot piatyi god [The Year One Thousand Eight Hundred and Five]

Moskva, Katkov, 1865-66. £4,750

The very first publication of any part of Tolstoy's masterpiece 'War and Peace'.

Image for NEMIROVICH-DANCHENKO, V. Slazki deistvitelnosti. First edition, Tsarskoe Selo copy. #2

Imperial copy

NEMIROVICH-DANCHENKO, Vasilii Ivanovich

Skazki deistvitelnosti [Tales of Reality]

Lebedev, Skt. Peterburg, 1891. £2,750

First edition of these great realistic Russian novellas: the Tsarskoe Selo copy.

Image for SOLZHENITSYN, A. Odin den Ivana Denisovicha. First edition, Flegon, London, 1962. #1

With the rarest cover variant

SOLZHENITSYN, Aleksandr Isaevich

Odin den Ivana Denisovicha [One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich]

Flegon Press, London, [1962]. £4,750

First edition of Solzhenitsyn's first book - here with the very rare variant of the cover showing a watchtower. A fine example of this great novel.

Image for SHALAMOV, V. Kolymskie rasskazy. First edition, in the original Russian, 1978. #1

With provenance

SHALAMOV, Varlam Tikhonovich

Kolymskie rasskazy [Kolyma Stories]

London, Overseas Publications Interchange, 1978. £1,250

First edition of this classic of "GULAG literature", with literary provenance.

Image for NAKHIMOV, Akim. Works in Verse and Prose. First edition, Kharkov, 1815. #2

Rare Russian fables from Ukraine

NAKHIMOV, Akim Nikolaevich

Sochineniia v stikhakh i proze [Works in Verse and Prose]

Universit. tip., Kharkov, 1815. £1,250

Early Russian fables (and other poetical works) at the dawn of Russia's Golden Age of Literature - the authors only book, written and printed in Kharkov, nowadays Ukraine. No copy traced outside Russia.

Tolstoy the playwright

TOLSTOY, Lev

Pervyi vinokur ili kak chertenok kraiushku zasluzhil. Komediia [The First Distiller, or How the Little Devil Earned his Crust. A Comedy]

I.D. Sytin for Posrednik, Moskva, 1886. £1,750

First edition of Tolstoy's successful play on wine and some of its effects... Lovely example in wrappers. Scarce.

Image for M. BULGAKOV. Heart of a Dog, first Russian book edition. Paris, YMCA, 1969. #2

U-u-u-u-u-u... in first edition

BULGAKOV, Mikhail

Sobache serdtse [Heart of a Dog]

Beresniak for YMCA, Paris, 1969. £1,450

Uncommon first book edition in Russian of Bulgakov's suppressed satirical masterpiece. A lovely copy in its original wrappers by Annenkov.

Image for Pushkin through the Caucasus, one of 50 copies, by Serge Lifar #1

Svetlov-Fekula copy - one of 50 only

PUSHKIN, Aleksandr Sergeevich, Sergey LIFAR and Prof. M. L. GOFMAN (editors)

Puteshestvie v Arzrum vo vremia pokhoda 1829 goda [Journey to Arzrum during the campaign of 1829]

Lifar, Paris, 1934. £2,950

Pushkin's best travel account in a fine bibliophilic edition, one of 50 'ad nominem' copies only, this one for Valerian Svetlov.

Image for Akhmatova, Brodsky and others, Important poems and other texts, incl. Poem bez geroia [Poem Without a Hero], first editions. #1

The Pantheon of the Silver Age - a complete set

AKHMATOVA, Anna, Isaac BABEL, Iosif BRODSKII, Osip MANDELSHTAM, Vladimir NABOKOV, Boris PASTERNAK, Marina TSVETAEVA et al

Vozdushnye Puti [Airways. Almanach. Vols I-V]

New York, 1960-67. £1,500

The first publication of Akhmatova's 'Poem Without a Hero' [Poem bez geroia] - as well as many other works by some of the best Russian poets and authors of the 20th century: a complete set of this important literary almanac, rare so.

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

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

BULGAKOV, Mikhail

Sobache serdtse [Heart of a Dog]

London, Student, Flegon Press, 1968. £1,000

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

Image for Lenin, Razvitie kapitalizma, first edition, 1899 #1

Lenin's first significant work

[LENIN, pseud.:] Vladimir ILIN [pseud. for Vladimir Ilyich ULIANOV]

Razvitie kapitalizma v Rossii. Protsess obrazovaniia vnutrenniago rynka dlia krupnoi promyshlennosti [The Development of Capitalism in Russia. The Process of Formation of a Home Market for Large-Scale Industry]

A. Leifert, Skt. Peterburg, 1899. £4,750

First edition of Lenin's first substantial work, and one of his first two books published in 1899. A landmark economic analysis.

Image for Esenin, Pasternak, Belii et al., Yav', Stikhi, first edition inscribed, 1919. #1

Fantastic association copy in striking binding

ESENIN, Sergei, with Boris PASTERNAK, Andrei BELII et al

Iav. Stikhi [Reality. Poems]

[Iav, Moskva], 1919. £9,500

Exceptional association copy of these scandalous Russian imaginist poems, extensively inscribed by three co-authors – including Esenin - to a fourth one, Alexander Olenin. With Aristarkh Lentulov's striking cover bound in a very unusual cloth-and-wicker binding of the time. One of the best, if not the best example of this famous book of Russian poetry.

Image for MANDELSHTAM, Kamen [Stone], first edition, Skt. Peterburg, 1913. #2

The very rare first edition

MANDELSHTAM, Osip Emilevich

Kamen [Stone]

Akme, Skt Peterburg, 1913. £12,500

First edition of the first book by one of Russia's greatest 20th-century poets. A very good example of this rare edition.

Image for Norov analyses Tolstoy's War and Peace: first edition of this rare pamphlet #2

Extensive contemporary analysis of Tolstoy's masterpiece

[TOLSTOY] – NOROV, Avraam Sergeevich

Voina i mir (1805-1812). S istoricheskoi tochki zrenia i po vospominaniam sovremennika. Po povodu sochinenia L.N.Tolstogo "Voina i mir" [War and Peace (1805-1812). From an Historical Perspective and Following Memories of a Contemporary. About the work of Count L.N. Tolstoy, "War and Peace"]

Tip. departamenta udelov, Skt. Peterburg, 1868. £850

A very rare extensive review and analysis of Tolstoy's masterpiece, published by a writer and book collector immediately when War and Peace's first edition was being brought out.

Image for P. LOTI, Pecheur d'Islande. Edition originale tirage limité, Paris, 1886 #2

Out of stock

Edition originale en version de luxe, aux planches en plusieurs états

LOTI, Pierre

Pêcheur d'Islande

Paris, Ph. Bosc for Calmann Lévy, 1886.

Loti's most celebrated novel: a fine example of the first edition, here with a record number of states of the plates, bound in full green morocco retaining the original bright orange publisher's wrappers.

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