Lev Nikolaïevitch TOLSTOÏ.

Anna Karenina [in Russian]. Moscow, T. Ris, 1878. 3 volumes in-8: brown half-chagrin, spines with cold-stamped eggplant percale boards (period binding). First edition. Tolstoy's second great novel after War and Peace and, for some, including Vladimir Nabokov, his absolute masterpiece. Written from 1873 onwards, the novel appeared in serial form from 1875 to 1877 in the periodical Russkij vestnik, with the exception of the epilogue, which was rejected by the publisher. A tragedy of adultery coupled with a critique of the institution of marriage, official religion and the aristocracy, Anna Karenina paints an immense picture of Russian society in the aftermath of the economic and social revolution brought about by the abolition of serfdom. It had an immediate and considerable response. It is reported that impatient readers went so far as to send their servants to the printer's in order to find out the rest of the story. Celebrated by Turgenev as the "greatest writer of the Russian land", Tolstoy was continuously reprinted during the communist period: he had been set up as a model by the theoretician of realism, George Lukács. A pleasant copy in a modest contemporary binding. Binding handled, corners and spine worn. Some foxing. The title of the first volume is turned up in the inner margin. (Kilgour, 1196.)