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[DOSTOEVSKY’S FIRST COMPLETE WORKS] Polnoe sobranie sochinenii [i.e. The Complete Works of Dostoevsky, Edited and Supplemented by the Author]

Dostoevsky, F.M.

Item #1243

St. Petersburg: Fyodor Stellovsky, 1865-1870. Vol.1-4. 274,[1]; 256,[1]; 374,[2]; 225 pp. 26x19 cm. Two half-leather period bindings. New endpapers. Pre-revolutionary stamps of St. Petersburg bookseller on title pages. The owner’s inscription in pencil (Nikitin) on the title page of vol.3. Otherwise very good. Complete with advertisement of the publisher in volumes 1 and 3.
Extremely rare as a set.
The first complete edition of Dostoevsky’s work that consisted of everything he has written to the day. The edition featured the novel ‘The Gambler’ written specifically for this edition. The edition featured following novels, novellas and short stories:
- The Landlady (first edition in a book form)
- Mr. Prokharchin (first edition in a book form)
- A Weak Heart (first edition in a book form)
- The House of the Dead
- Poor Folk
- White Nights (first edition in a book form)
- An Honest Thief (first edition in a book form)
- Humiliated and Insulted (first edition in a book form)
- Crocodile (first edition in a book form)
- A Nasty Story (first edition in a book form)
- Notes from Underground (first edition in a book form)
- A Christmas Tree and a Wedding (first edition in a book form)
- Winter Notes on Summer Impressions
- The Double (first edition in a book form)
- Another Man’s Wife (first edition in a book form)
- Little Hero (first edition in a book form)
- Netochka Nezvanova (first edition in a book form)
- Uncle’s Dream (first edition in a book form)
- Selo Stepanchikovo and Its Inhabitants (first edition in a book form)
- Crime and Punishment
The story of the publication is the following. In late 1865 Dostoevsky who was in great debt at the time sold rights for all his works to the publisher Fyodor Stellovsky. Also there was a section in the contract saying that Dostoyevsky had to write a new novel till the 1st of November, 1866. If he was to fail to provide such a novel, Stellovsky would receive the right to publish everything by Dostoyevsky without paying anything to the author. By late July when the work hadn’t yet begun Dostoyevsky was complaining to a friend that he saw nightmares about Stellovsky and didn’t know how to start working on a book. He was advised to hire a stenographer so he can dictate the novel. In the meantime the deadline was approaching, and we know for certain that by the 4th of October Dostoyevsky hadn’t started yet. Professor of stenography Olkhin sent his student Anna Grigorievna Snitkina to him, and the work began the next day. They finished the book by the 28th of October, just in time to bring it to the publisher. By the time they finished Dostoyevsky proposed to Anna Grigorievna and they married in February of the next year. Then they left Russia for 4 years, and on the way they stopped in Baden where Dostoyevsky had an experience he described in ‘The Gambler’ and managed to win 4000 francs to lose them all later the same day. He couldn’t stop, and they lost everything they had at the time including books, clothes and necessities. ‘The Gambler’ became the cherry on the top of this highly successful publishing project. At the same time with these complete works the separate editions of all the works from it were published by Stellovsky.
The only recent auction record: Christies, 2018 sold for 20 000 GBP.

Price: $19,500.00