The Novels of F. Dostoevsky: The Brothers Karamasov, The Idiot, The Possessed, Crime and Punishment, The House of the Dead, The Insulted and Injured, A Raw Youth, The Eternal Husband and other Stories, The Gambler and Other Stories, White Nights and Other Stories, An Honest Thief and Other Stories, The Friend of the Family - Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky [Dostoyevsky], Constance Garnett (translator) 1949-1951 - William Heinemann, London A finely bound twelve volume set of Dostoevsky’s novels, first translated by Constance Garnett between 1912 and 1920, and now difficult to assemble in this format.   Provenance: From the library of Colonel Julian Fane (1921-2013), with a piece if his note paper loosely tipped in - Colonel Fane was Commanding Officer of The Life Guards from 1962 to 1964. In his earlier service in the Gloucestershire Regiment during the Second World War he was awarded two Military Crosses and the Croix de Guerre [http://guardsmagazine.com/obits_fane.html]

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky was born in Moscow in 1821. His debut, the epistolary novella
Poor Folk (1846), made his name. In 1849 he was arrested for involvement with the politically subversive 'Petrashevsky circle' and until 1854 he lived in a convict prison in Omsk, Siberia. From this experience came The House of the Dead (1860-2). In 1860 he began the journal Vremya (Time). Already married, he fell in love with one of his contributors, Appollinaria Suslova, eighteen years his junior, and developed a ruinous passion for roulette. After the death of his first wife, Maria, in 1864, Dostoyevsky completed Notes from Underground and began work towards Crime and Punishment (1866). The major novels of his late period are The Idiot (1868), Demons (1871-2) and The Brothers Karamazov (1879-80). He died in 1881.

Constance Garnett (1862-1946) was an English translator of nineteenth century Russian literature. Entranced by the stories of various Russian exiles her husband (publisher Edward Garnett) invited as weekend guests, Constance began learning Russian when she was confined during a difficult pregnancy in 1891. Despite encountering some criticism for her work (notably from Vladimir Nabokov and Joseph Brodsky in the early twentieth century) she remains one of the most prolific translators of Russian literature, translating twelve volumes of Dostoevsky, five of Gogol, seventeen of Chekhov, five of Tolstoy and eleven of Turgenev. Garnett’s extraordinary work was accomplished despite poor health and poor eyesight, the latter ruined by her labours on
War and Peace, a tragic if fitting sacrifice.

References: Penguin Classics, web. Random House, web. Faber and Faber, web. Remnick, ‘The Translation Wars’
The New Yorker 2005.

Twelve octavo volumes (binding size 19.4x13.8cm), pp. [2] viii 821 [3]; [6] 604 [2]; [8] 617 [3]; [2] vi 482 [2]; [8] 277 [3]; [8] 333 [3]; [6] 560 [2]; [8] 323 [3]; [8] 318 [2]; [8] 288 [2]; [8] 325 [3]; [8] 358 [2].

Here follows a list of the stories and titles [in brackets are some of the alternative titles]:-
I. The Brothers Karamazov
II. The Idiot
III. The Possessed [The Devils, Demons]
IV. Crime and Punishment
V. The House of the Dead [Notes from a Dead House]
VI. The Insulted and Injured [Humiliated and Insulted, The Insulted and Humiliated, Injury and Insult]
VII. A Raw Youth [The Adolescent, An Accidental Family]
VIII. The Eternal Husband and other Stories - i. The Eternal Husband. ii. The Double. iii. A Gentle Spirit [The Meek One, A Gentle Creature].
IX. The Gambler and other Stories - i. The Gambler. ii. Poor People [Poor Folk]. iii. The Landlady
X. White Nights and other Stories - i. White Nights. ii. Notes from Underground. iii. A Faint Heart [A Weak Heart]. iv. A Christmas Tree and a Wedding. v. Polzunkov. vi. A Little Hero. vii. Mr. Prohartchin [Mr. Prokharchin].
XI. An Honest Thief and other Stories - i. An Honest Thief. ii. Uncle’s Dream. iii. A Novel in Nine Letters. iv. An Unpleasant Predicament [A Nasty Anecdote, A Nasty Story, A Disgraceful Affair, A Most Unfortunate Incident]. v. Another Man's Wife or the Husband Under the Bed [A Jealous Husband]. vi. The Heavenly Christmas Tree. vii. The Peasant Marey. viii. The Crocodile. ix. Bobok [Little Bean]. x. The Dream of a Ridiculous Man
XII. The Friend of the Family - i. The Friend of the Family [The Village of Stepanchikovo]. ii. Nyetochka Nyezvanov.
  Handsomely bound in recent three-quarter red morocco over matching cloth, spines with raised bands, panels lettered or decorated in gilt with black morocco labels lettered in gilt.   Condition: Fine in fine bindings   Ref: 111265   Price: HK$ 32,000