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[ANNA KARENINA: FIRST EDITION] Anna Karenina. Roman [i.e. Anna Karenina. The novel]

Tolstoy, L.N.

Item #2339

Moscow: Typ. T. Ris, 1878. In 3 volumes. V.1: Part 1-2. 369 pp.; V.2: Part 3-5. 493 pp.; V.3: Part 6-8. 413 pp. 19x12 cm. Each volume in half-leather modern boards. Volumes are very clean internally, the beginnings of the first and second volumes has annotations in period pencil. The third volume is slightly foxed at the beginning and the ending of the block. Otherwise very good.

First separate edition. Rare. One of 6000 copies.

In 1874 Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy (1828-1910) planned to print Anna Karenina as a separate book but because of the need to make substantial corrections in the beginning of the work, he suspended the printing. At that time the text was almost ready for printing in M.N. Katkov’s printing house. The manuscript was passed on to the magazine ‘Russkii Vestni’k [i.e. Russian Herald] in which the novel was first published from 1875 to 1877. During the time of publishing the novel went through a series of alterations and edits.
Owing to a political disagreement between Tolstoy and the journal’s publisher, Mikhail Katkov, over Serbian independence (Katkov and his journal were in favor, and Tolstoy was against) the last part of the story was never printed. A complete edition (with the final part) was published in book form in 1878, making this the first time the book appeared in complete version in print.

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