Tolstoy, 1805, Moscow, 1866, contemporary morocco-backed cloth

TOLSTOY, LEV NIKOLAEVICH

Tysyacha vosemsot pyatyi god [The year 1805]. Moscow: University Press (Katkov & Co.), 1866

2 parts in one volume, 8vo (212 x 130mm.), half-titles, contemporary burgundy morocco-backed purple pebbled cloth, spine gilt in compartments with author and title in French, without printed wrappers, occasional light foxing, small tear to pp.59-60 in part 2

FIRST BOOK EDITION of Tolstoy's first chapters of the novel that would become War and Peace. These chapters were first published in the periodical Russian Messenger (circulation 3,000 copies) in 1865-1866 (the text in this edition is dated at the end 21 December 1865) before being issued in book form, as here. Tolstoy continued to work on the rest of War and Peace and heavily revised the chapters in this early version before the whole of War and Peace appeared from 1867.

The publisher of the Russian Messenger, Mikhail Katkov, had 500 copies of this edition printed in June 1866; he also planned to continue the serial publication with later chapters but Tolstoy was not convinced, and the full version of War and Peace was published almost volume by volume (there were 6) through the publisher Pyotr Bartenev from 1867 to 1869 in a print run of 4,800 copies.

The rarity of The year 1805 is no doubt due to the subsequent publication of War and Peace in its full form, which made this early section effectively redundant for the general reader.

LITERATURE:

Kilgour 1194