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[JEROME IN RUSSIAN] Vseobshcheye ravenstvo: (Novaya utopiya); [Chuvstvitel’naya povest’]: [Rasskazy] [i.e. Universal Equality: (New Utopia); [A Pathetic Story]: [Short Stories]]

Jerome, J.

Item #2023

Moscow: K. Tsvetkov, [1901]. 86, [2] pp. 17.8x11.5 cm. In original publisher’s printed wrappers. Loss of the pieces of the spine, a Soviet bookshop stamp on the front free endpaper, pen markings on the front wrapper and title page, otherwise very good.

Scarce. First edition. Published during the author’s lifetime.
An early Russian translation of Jerome K. Jerome’s New Utopia (original story written in 1891) and a Pathetic Story (original story written in 1886) by unknown contributors. The book was published by K. Tsvetkov and issued by the A. Vasil’yev publishing house in 1901. This was one of the earliest Russian translations of anything by the English writer and humorist.
Jerome K. Jerome’s writings were first translated into Russian in the mid-1890s. Following his visit to St. Petersburg in 1899, there was a notable increase in translations, leading to an influx of unauthorized renditions. The situation escalated to a critical point by 1902, prompting Jerome to address the issue in a letter to The Times titled “Literary Piracy in Russia:” “Failing a more potent voice, I venture to raise my own feeble plaint against the inhospitable treatment Russia metes out to the
literary guests she herself invites to visit her…. Of late my gratification has been considerably marred, however, by my powerlessness to prevent the issue of unauthorized translations, which, I am assured by my Russian friends, are at the best garbled and incorrect, and at the worst more or less original concoctions, of the merits or demerits of which I am entirely innocent, but which, nevertheless, are sold labelled with my name … I have no remedy. I must rest passive, knowing myself
to be misrepresented ….” (The Times, 8 July 1902).

No copies found in Worldcat.

Price: $550.00