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]

Publication: Lifar, Paris, 1934.

PUSHKIN, Aleksandr Sergeevich, Sergey LIFAR and Prof. M. L. GOFMAN (editors), Puteshestvie v Arzrum vo vremia pokhoda 1829 goda

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

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£2,950

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Our Notes & References

Fine copy of this first book edition of Pushkin’s best travel account, a fine private production, from the very rare issue of 50 copies only, each one bearing the printed name of the recipient, this one from the 30 copies on papier de Hollande, after 20 on Japon. Another issue was limited to 200 copies, without specific recipients, dated 1835 and with “second edition” on the title page.

This copy was printed for Valerian Svetlov, actually V. Ivchenko, an active supporter of Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes, involved in the organisation of the first season in 1909. After having published some of the best works on Russian ballet, he died in January 1934 – that is ten months before the printing of the present work: a rare example of posthumous dedication!

The copy also includes a rare loose leaf advertising the printing of Lifar’s bibliophile edition of Pushkin’s letters to his fiancee.

This Journey to Arzrum published by the famous dancer, choreographer and collector Sergei Mikhailovich Lifar (1905-86), was among the most important publications of Pushkiniana outside of Russia. It contains an introduction by Lifar, a detailed commentary by the Pushkin scholar M.L. Hoffmann and a facsimile of Pushkin’s notebook that Lifar acquired from a dealer in Paris. This illustration is of particular interest because it shows a handwritten introduction to A Journey to Arzrum with the first two pages crossed out and not subsequently included in Pushkin’s first publication of the novel, in the first issue of his Sovremennik in 1836. The charming wrappers were created by Rostislav Dobuzhinskii, a set designer of the Russian Drama Theatre in Paris and a son of Mstislav Dobuzhinskii, a renowned member of Mir Iskusstva.

A Journey to Arzrum is one of Pushkin’s earliest texts written in prose, and the best of his only two travel accounts, gathering observations on the characters and behaviour of local peoples (Circassians among others). It was written at a time when travelling south was becoming fashionable: local spa towns were developing rapidly as Russia was progressively subjugating these southern provinces. The trip to Arzrum for Pushkin was, however, a form of escape from his stifling condition in St. Petersburg, where he was meant to report all his movements to the Tsar’s police. Amazingly enough, he left to the south and travelled far (Arzrum is now in Turkey) without the police knowing it at first. It was during this journey when Pushkin had a poignant encounter with the convoy bringing writer Alexandr Griboedov’s mutilated body back to the Russian territory from Persia. According to Pavel Alexeev, Puteshestvie was the culmination of Pushkin’s exploration of the Eastern theme. It played an important role in shaping the image of the East in the classical Russian literature of the 19th century.

After the very first 1836 publication in Sovremennik, we could not find any other book edition, except for an offprint from a journal for military students, published in 1855 and probably printed in very small quantity (the copy we traced belonged to the future tsar Alexander III).

Provenance

Valerian Iakovlevich Svetlov (printed dedication); Paul M. Fekula (this copy as num. 5163 in his catalogue, ‘Printed in France’ discrete small stamp to title page).

Bibliography

Not in Kilgour, Gubar, or Markov.

Alekseev P. V. Orientalizatsia prostranstva v «Puteshestvii v Arzrum» A. S. Pushkina // Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta, 2014. № 382, pp. 5-12.

Tynianov, Yuri, O puteshestvii v Arzrum. (online).

Item number

1797

 

Physical Description

Quarto (27 x 21 cm). 78 pp. incl. first blank, half-title, frontispiece and title, [2] pp., including facsimile of manuscripts in Russian and French, head- and tailpieces, loose ad leaf inserted.

Binding

Publisher’s printed wrappers by Dobuzhinskii.

Condition

Wrappers a bit soiled, fore-edge of upper cover slightly creased, otherwise an excellent example.

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