DOSTOEVSKY, FYODOR MIKHAILOVICH

First edition in English, introducing Dostoevsky to British readers on a large scale for the first time, a gorgeous copy.

• Fyodor Dostoevsky (Russian).
• Translated by Constance Garnett.
• London: William Heinemann, 1912.
• xii, 838, [2] pages.
• Bottom edge uncut.
• Bound in original full red cloth, blind-stamped central ornament, gilt-stamped ornamental spine, lettered “THE NOVELS / OF / FIODOR / MICHAEILOWITCH / DOSTÖEVSKY / THE / BROTHERS / KARAMAZOV / HEINEMANN.”
• Housed in custom quarter red goatskin clamshell box and cloth chemise.

Before Constance Garnett’s series of translations (beginning with this one of THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV), Dostoevsky’s works were largely unknown in English. Tolstoy and Turgenev had already appeared in English, but Dostoevky remained largely untouched because translators viewed him as significantly more difficult to translate for an English audience. Many major English authors, like D.H. Lawrence and John Galsworthy, vehemently rejected Dostoevksy; but Virginia Woolf, then still a new critic and not yet a novelist, became an important champion: in a 1912 letter to Lytton Strachey she wrote, “It is directly obvious that he is the greatest writer ever born.” A recognized turning point in the critical reception of Dostoevsky, and the beginning of his reputation in English as one of the world’s greatest novelists. Already a scarce edition, it is especially unusual in this condition.