[PASTERNAK, BORIS]. Doctor Zhivago. London: Collins and Harvill Press, 1958.
First UK edition, first impression; leather bound; hardcover, octavo (21.5 x 14 x 3 cm), pp. 510. Handsomely rebound in full crushed morocco gilt, t.e.g., marbled endpapers, half-title, original cloth backstrip pasted in at the rear. Condition: NEAR FINE. Binding tight and secure, the covers beautifully preserved. A touch of spotting to page edges, else clean and without previous ownership markings.
Notes: Rare first UK edition, first impression, in a wonderful fine binding. The book, which is set in early 20th century Russia, was refused publication in the USSR and the manuscript was smuggled to Milan and initially published there before being translated into English and published in London. Pasternak won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1958. Doctor Zhivago was adapted for screen in a hugely successful film directed by David Lean and released in 1965. This is an important cornerstone of 20th century Russian literature. In his 1958 New Yorker review, Edmund Wilson called the novel "one of the very great books of our time, Doctor Zhivago will, I believe, come to stand as one of the great events in man's literary and moral history."
