![SOLOGUB, Fedor (1863-1927). Melkii bes [The Petty Demon, sometimes The Small Demon]. St Petersburg: Shipovnik, 1907.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2018/CKS/2018_CKS_17162_0212_001(sologub_fedor_melkii_bes_the_petty_demon_sometimes_the_small_demon_st111450).jpg?w=1)
![SOLOGUB, Fedor (1863-1927). Melkii bes [The Petty Demon, sometimes The Small Demon]. St Petersburg: Shipovnik, 1907.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2018/CKS/2018_CKS_17162_0212_002(sologub_fedor_melkii_bes_the_petty_demon_sometimes_the_small_demon_st100207).jpg?w=1)
![SOLOGUB, Fedor (1863-1927). Melkii bes [The Petty Demon, sometimes The Small Demon]. St Petersburg: Shipovnik, 1907.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2018/CKS/2018_CKS_17162_0212_000(sologub_fedor_melkii_bes_the_petty_demon_sometimes_the_small_demon_st111443).jpg?w=1)
Details
SOLOGUB, Fedor (1863-1927). Melkii bes [The Petty Demon, sometimes The Small Demon]. St Petersburg: Shipovnik, 1907.
A presentation copy of the first edition of his most famous novel, inscribed by Sologub: 'To my dear sister [signed] Fedor Sologub. March 07'. Mirsky described The Little Demon as 'the most perfect Russian novel since the death of Dostoevsky'; 'it met with an enormous success [and] brought Sologub universal recognition and an all-Russian reputation' (Mirsky, pp.197, 199). Sologub was very close to his younger sister; having lost their father when they were still under five, Fedor and Ol'ga followed their illiterate mother into the service of an aristocratic St Petersburg family. Later, Ol'ga looked after Fedor's own household; she lived with Fedor almost her entire life, experiencing with him every setback and every triumph as Fedor rescued them from the poverty of their childhood. When Ol'ga died, a few months after receiving this book, Sologub wrote to a friend 'you cannot know how great is my loss [...] my whole life is connected to my sister, and now I seem to crumble upon myself. Outwardly I live as always, and I write, but somehow it is wild to me that I too am not dead' (letter to M.N. Karvoskaia, July 1907). RBH and ABPC record no copy of this work having been offered at auction, and only one inscribed copy of any of his works. WorldCat apparently locates only one copy outside of Russia, at the British Library. Not in Kilgour (which has otherwise extensive holdings of Sologub).
Octavo (224 x 153mm). With the publisher's catalogue (faint damp-staining to the catalogue leaves). 20th-century blue cloth preserving the original illustrated front wrapper by Mstislav Dobuzhinskii; cloth spine titled in gilt (endpapers faintly damp-stained; light soiling and spotting to the front wrapper; wrapper possibly strengthened at the edges). Provenance: Fedor Sologub (presentation inscription to:) – Ol'ga Kuzminichna Teternikova (1865-1907).
A presentation copy of the first edition of his most famous novel, inscribed by Sologub: 'To my dear sister [signed] Fedor Sologub. March 07'. Mirsky described The Little Demon as 'the most perfect Russian novel since the death of Dostoevsky'; 'it met with an enormous success [and] brought Sologub universal recognition and an all-Russian reputation' (Mirsky, pp.197, 199). Sologub was very close to his younger sister; having lost their father when they were still under five, Fedor and Ol'ga followed their illiterate mother into the service of an aristocratic St Petersburg family. Later, Ol'ga looked after Fedor's own household; she lived with Fedor almost her entire life, experiencing with him every setback and every triumph as Fedor rescued them from the poverty of their childhood. When Ol'ga died, a few months after receiving this book, Sologub wrote to a friend 'you cannot know how great is my loss [...] my whole life is connected to my sister, and now I seem to crumble upon myself. Outwardly I live as always, and I write, but somehow it is wild to me that I too am not dead' (letter to M.N. Karvoskaia, July 1907). RBH and ABPC record no copy of this work having been offered at auction, and only one inscribed copy of any of his works. WorldCat apparently locates only one copy outside of Russia, at the British Library. Not in Kilgour (which has otherwise extensive holdings of Sologub).
Octavo (224 x 153mm). With the publisher's catalogue (faint damp-staining to the catalogue leaves). 20th-century blue cloth preserving the original illustrated front wrapper by Mstislav Dobuzhinskii; cloth spine titled in gilt (endpapers faintly damp-stained; light soiling and spotting to the front wrapper; wrapper possibly strengthened at the edges). Provenance: Fedor Sologub (presentation inscription to:) – Ol'ga Kuzminichna Teternikova (1865-1907).
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