![DOSTOEVSKY, Fyodor (1821-1881). Idiot. [The Idiot.] St Petersburg: K. Zamyslovskii, 1874.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2018/CKS/2018_CKS_17162_0065_001(dostoevsky_fyodor_idiot_the_idiot_st_petersburg_k_zamyslovskii_1874104822).jpg?w=1)
![DOSTOEVSKY, Fyodor (1821-1881). Idiot. [The Idiot.] St Petersburg: K. Zamyslovskii, 1874.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2018/CKS/2018_CKS_17162_0065_002(dostoevsky_fyodor_idiot_the_idiot_st_petersburg_k_zamyslovskii_1874091324).jpg?w=1)
![DOSTOEVSKY, Fyodor (1821-1881). Idiot. [The Idiot.] St Petersburg: K. Zamyslovskii, 1874.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2018/CKS/2018_CKS_17162_0065_000(dostoevsky_fyodor_idiot_the_idiot_st_petersburg_k_zamyslovskii_1874121926).jpg?w=1)
Details
DOSTOEVSKY, Fyodor (1821-1881). Idiot. [The Idiot.] St Petersburg: K. Zamyslovskii, 1874.
The first edition of 'the most original of Dostoevsky's great novels' (Frank I); it is 'the most personal of all Dostoevsky's major works, the book in which he embodies his most intimate, cherished, and sacred convictions' (Frank II). Here, Dostoevsky aims to show 'religious faith and moral conscience existing as an ineradicable attribute in the Russian people independent of reason' (Frank I). RBH and ABPC record only two complete copies having been offered at auction. The novel was serialised in the periodical Russkii Vestnik starting in 1868. Frank I: Dostoevsky. The Mantle of the Prophet, pp. 276, 328, 340; Frank II: Dostoevsky. A Writer in His Time, p.577; Kilgour 282.
Two volumes, octavo (209 x 144mm). With the half-titles (occasional faint marginal dampstain; occasional light marginal soiling; small chip in the margin of leaf 19.8 of vol. 1; light scattered spotting in vol. 2). Contemporary Russian brown quarter leather with brown cloth-covered boards, spines lettered directly in gilt, sides with a blind-tooled border (one spine head chipped; extremities rubbed; light soiling). Provenance: 'A.M.' (Cyrillic initials at spine foot).
The first edition of 'the most original of Dostoevsky's great novels' (Frank I); it is 'the most personal of all Dostoevsky's major works, the book in which he embodies his most intimate, cherished, and sacred convictions' (Frank II). Here, Dostoevsky aims to show 'religious faith and moral conscience existing as an ineradicable attribute in the Russian people independent of reason' (Frank I). RBH and ABPC record only two complete copies having been offered at auction. The novel was serialised in the periodical Russkii Vestnik starting in 1868. Frank I: Dostoevsky. The Mantle of the Prophet, pp. 276, 328, 340; Frank II: Dostoevsky. A Writer in His Time, p.577; Kilgour 282.
Two volumes, octavo (209 x 144mm). With the half-titles (occasional faint marginal dampstain; occasional light marginal soiling; small chip in the margin of leaf 19.8 of vol. 1; light scattered spotting in vol. 2). Contemporary Russian brown quarter leather with brown cloth-covered boards, spines lettered directly in gilt, sides with a blind-tooled border (one spine head chipped; extremities rubbed; light soiling). Provenance: 'A.M.' (Cyrillic initials at spine foot).
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