Lot 93: GOGOL, Nikolai Vasil'evich (1809-1852). Pokhozhdeniia Chichikova ili Mertvyia Dushi . [The Adventures of Chichikov or Dead Souls]. Moscow: V. Got'e, 1855.

GOGOL, Nikolai Vasil'evich (1809-1852). Pokhozhdeniia Chichikova ili Mertvyia Dushi. [The Adventures of Chichikov or Dead Souls]. Moscow: V. Got'e, 1855.

8° (248 x 162mm). With half-title. Engraved plates by Bernardskii after Agin. (Scattered spotting and marginal dampstain.) Contemporary half-morocco (front cover nearly detached, spine head chipped). Provenance: V.V. (binding) -- Paul M. Fekula.

THE FIRST ILLUSTRATED EDITION. This first posthumous printing of Dead Souls follows the text of the second edition (1846), and for the first time includes E.E. Bernardskii's engravings after A.A. Agin's drawings. Gogol so disliked the illustrations that he had refused to include them in the second edition despite the offer of 1500 rubles in payment. Got'e also published the first edition of the second volume of Gogol's unfinished masterpiece in 1855 -- Gogol had burnt the original manuscript in a fit of madness, and that second volume was compiled from drafts and notes found following his suicide in 1852. Fekula 4720 (this copy).

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