Item #174 [FIRST SCARLET SAILS] Alye parusa [i.e. Scarlet Sails]. Alexander Grin.

[FIRST SCARLET SAILS] Alye parusa [i.e. Scarlet Sails]

Moscow: Izd-vo Frenkel’, 1923. Item #174

141 pp. 17,5x13 cm. In original illustrated wrappers. Scuffed wrappers with tears, Soviet bookshop stamps on the back cover. Otherwise good.

First edition of the famous short novel Scarlet Sales by Russian writer Alexander Grin (1880-1932), notable for his romantic novels and short stories. Most of Alexander Grin’s writings bear no direct relation to the reality of Imperial and Soviet Russia that he lived in. The setting of most of his novels and short stories is an unnamed land by the sea. From his writings one does not recognize Alexander Grin as a Russian (even his name sounds Western). But he has a special place among other Russian writers. Critics were trying to compare him to Edgar Poe, Ernst Hoffmann, Robert Stevenson, Bret Harte but Grin didn’t really have predecessors or followers. He is considered a Soviet classic but nevertheless he stands alone.

Worldcat locates only one copy in USA (Columbia University).

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