Exceptionally fresh
Publication: Ris, Moskva, 1868-69.
£37,500
First edition of this great classic of Russian, and indeed world literature. A fine set, in fresh condition.
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First edition of Tolstoy’s masterpiece and one of the greatest novels of world literature.
A very attractive set, almost spotless.
Described by Turgenev as “the epic, the history novel and the vast picture of the whole nation’s life”, War and Peace began as a serialised work called 1805 which first appeared in the magazine Russkiy Vestnik (The Russian Messenger). Parts of the novel were published in 1867 but Tolstoy was unhappy with it and set about a substantial revision of the work, his wife Sophia copying seven complete drafts. The final version, published as War and Peace, differed markedly from the part-serialised 1805 and was, despite some critics’ difficulty in classifying the work, an instant success and recognised as marking a significant shift in what literary fiction could do.
Bibliography
Kilgour 1196; Lesman 2247.
Item number
2524
Six parts in three volumes 8vo (24 x 16 cm; block c. 23.5 x 15.5 cm). Half-title, title, 297 and 146 pp.; half-title, title, 186 pp.; half-title, title and 284 pp.; half-title, title and 336 pp.; half-tite, title and 323 pp.; half-title, title, 290 pp.; with the odd pagination mistakes as in Kilgour: part III, p. 227 for p. 127 and p. 265 for p.255 and part IV, p.153 for p.253; map on p239 of part IV.
Binding
20th-c. French half red morocco over marbled boards, spines in compartments lettered in gilt in French, top edge gilt.
Condition
Corners minimally rubbed, in excellent condition overall.
A computer-printed samizdat of Marina Tsvetaeva's epic poetic cycle about the October Revolution and the ensuing Russian Civil War, An interesting illegal production of a text banned in Soviet Union and not published in Russia until 1991. One of the major texts by Russia's great poetess.
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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.
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Fine book-related letter signed by Akhmatova, one of Russia's greatest poets, where she lists her recent publications in Russia, after a difficult period of hard censorship.
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