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DOSTOEVSKY, Fyodor (1821-1881). Dvojnik. [The Double]. St Petersburg: Th. Stellovsky, 1866.
The rare first separate edition, with the original wrappers. RBH and ABPC record no other copies having been offered at auction. The text was much altered by the author from its first incarnation, when it had appeared in a periodical in 1846. The subtitle ‘A Petersburg poem’ nods at Gogol’s Dead souls, manifesting a relationship of emulation, response and challenge that is sustained throughout the work (A.L. Bem). Dostoevsky regarded this novella as a ‘failure’ in relation to his ambition, yet in his diary he declared ‘Its idea was rather lucid, and I have never expressed in my writings anything more serious’ (‘The History of the Verb "Stushevatsia"’ In Diary of a Writer, transl. B. Brasol, v. II. N.Y.: Octagon Books, 1973, p.883). Not in Smirnov-Sokol’skii. Frank, Dostoevsky: A Writer in His Time, p.103.
Octavo (180 x 135mm). With the advertisements, edges uncut (faint water stain to upper margin of last leaf, occasional marginal spotting, two quires loose). Original printed wrappers (upper wrapper loose).
The rare first separate edition, with the original wrappers. RBH and ABPC record no other copies having been offered at auction. The text was much altered by the author from its first incarnation, when it had appeared in a periodical in 1846. The subtitle ‘A Petersburg poem’ nods at Gogol’s Dead souls, manifesting a relationship of emulation, response and challenge that is sustained throughout the work (A.L. Bem). Dostoevsky regarded this novella as a ‘failure’ in relation to his ambition, yet in his diary he declared ‘Its idea was rather lucid, and I have never expressed in my writings anything more serious’ (‘The History of the Verb "Stushevatsia"’ In Diary of a Writer, transl. B. Brasol, v. II. N.Y.: Octagon Books, 1973, p.883). Not in Smirnov-Sokol’skii. Frank, Dostoevsky: A Writer in His Time, p.103.
Octavo (180 x 135mm). With the advertisements, edges uncut (faint water stain to upper margin of last leaf, occasional marginal spotting, two quires loose). Original printed wrappers (upper wrapper loose).
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