Lot 47: GOGOL, Nikolai Vasil'evich (1809-1852). Revizor, komediia v piati deistviiakh . [The Government Inspector, a Comedy in Five Acts.] Moscow: by Nikolai Stepanov for M.P. Pogodin, 1841.

GOGOL, Nikolai Vasil'evich (1809-1852). Revizor, komediia v piati deistviiakh. [The Government Inspector, a Comedy in Five Acts.] Moscow: by Nikolai Stepanov for M.P. Pogodin, 1841.

8° (210 x 141mm). With the half-title. (A few leaves repaired in the inside margin, a few tears, some of these repaired, occasional soiling, title filled-in with pen and ink.) Contemporary quarter sheep and green marbled paper boards, spine lettered in blind (extremities rubbed, spine-head repaired, spine-foot chipped). Provenance: Moscow Teacher's Seminary (stamps, binding, shelf marks on the title) -- indistinct pre-Revolutionary library stamp -- ?Popov (signature) -- another reader (indistinct signature, removed bookplate and label, pencilled marginalia).

The second edition of Gogol's masterpiece of comic theatre, published in his lifetime with his revisions and supplement. Gogol, keen to reduce his debts, approached S. T. Aksakov with the idea of publishing this second edition. But Aksakov, still grieving for his son, could not help, and Pogodin took it upon himself to publish this edition. Smirnov-Sokol'skii, Moia Biblioteka, 609 (this edition).

No VAT on hammer price or buyer's premium.

No VAT on hammer price or buyer's premium.