DOCTOR ZHIVAGO BY BORIS PASTERNAK 1958 FIRST EDITION

DOCTOR ZHIVAGO BY BORIS PASTERNAK 1958 FIRST EDITION

£800.00

Tax included.

[PASTERNAK, BORIS]. Doctor Zhivago. Collins and Harvill Press, 1958.

First UK edition, first impression. Cloth-bound. Hardcover. Octavo (215 x 140 x 30 mm.). Pp. 510. Publisher's original red cloth with gilt titles to spine. Supplied in original unclipped (21s. net) dust jacket with distinctive block coloured design by John Woodcock. Translated from the Russian by Max Hayward and Manya Harari. Including the Poems of Zhivago at the rear of the book. Printed by R. & R. Clark, Edinburgh. Condition: FINE. An immaculate copy. Without previous ownership markings. Scarce thus.

Notes: Rare first edition, first impression in fine condition. 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."