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Boris Pasternak. Doctor Zhivago. A Novel [in Cyrillic]. Milan: Feltrinelli, 1958 [actually, The Hague: Mouton, 24 August...
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Description
The very rare first edition in Russian of Doctor Zhivago
Boris Pasternak. Doctor Zhivago. A Novel [in
Cyrillic]. Milan: Feltrinelli, 1958 [actually, The Hague: Mouton,
24 August 1958].8vo. Publisher's blue buckram, spine lettered in gilt in Cyrillic.
VERY RARE FIRST EDITION IN RUSSIAN. This very rare unauthorized edition in Russian, was actually issued by Mouton in The Hague in September 1958. It precedes both the genuine Milan Feltrinelli Editore edition in Russian of late 1958 and the University of Michigan edition in Russian of 1959. The Milan printing and the Ann Arbor printing are often incorrectly identified as first printings in Russian, but are both preceded by this Dutch printing which is identifiable by its inclusion of the word "novel" on the title-page, a two-page Introduction (dated 1 August), and a text page count of 634 pages. The first printing by Feltrinelli drops the word "novel" from the title-page, has the imprint in Latin type, and lacks the two-page Introduction, and comprises only 567 pages.
A limited number of this Dutch edition were printed because of the legal pressure from Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, publisher of the first edition in Italian, who believed he owned the exclusive rights to publish the novel in Russian as well, believing his Italian version secured him international copyright.
It has been suggested that the publication in Russian was facilitated by the CIA as part of an effort to embarrass and ultimately to undermine the USSR, and several hundred copies were distributed via the Vatican's stall at the 1958 Brussels World's Fair. See Barnes, Boris Pasternak: A Literary Biography, Volume 2, 1928-60, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990, pp. 332-33.
Pasternak was denounced in Russia as being "anti-Soviet", and the pressure only increased after he was named winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1958, which he was forced to refuse to avoid deportation.
Condition: Some very slight spotting to text fore-edge, otherwise an extremely fine copy.
Auction Info
2024 July 25 Historical Platinum Signature® Auction #6294 (go to Auction Home page)
Auction Dates
July, 2024
25th
Thursday
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