Doctor Zhivago -
Boris Leonidovich Pasternak, Max Hayward, Manya Harari (translators)
1958 - Collins and Harvill Press, London - First Edition in English
Finely bound first edition in English.
Loosely based on Pasternak’s life after moving out of Moscow, Lara being modelled on his mistress, Olga Ivinskaya. The manuscript was being smuggled out of Russia in 1957 - ’You are hereby invited to watch me face the firing squad.’ said Pasternak on handing the manuscript over. After the publication of the English translation in 1958 Doctor Zhivago spent 26 weeks on the New York times bestseller list. This is the first edition of that translation.
The epic film adaptation by David Lean, starring Omar Sharif and Julie Christie, won 5 Oscars and 3 Baftas, and cemented Doctor Zhivago’s place in film folklore. Several years before the start of the Second World War, Pasternak (1890-1960) and his wife settled in Peredelkino, a village for writers several miles from Moscow. He was filled with a love of life that gave his poetry a hopeful tone. This is reflected in the name Zhivago, derived from the Russian word for live.
Frowned upon by the Soviet authorities, Doctor Zhivago was smuggled abroad by his friend Isaiah Berlin and published in an Italian translation by the Italian publishing house Feltrinelli in 1957.
Listed in The Times' Novel List Top 60 Poll [2013].
The first edition in English was published simultaneously by Collins & Harvill in London and Pantheon in New York. The publishing date was September 1958 but they appeared on the market in August 1958. [Biondi].
Octavo (binding size 21.5x15cm), pp. 510. Elegantly bound in full scarlet morocco, spine with gilt lettering and decorative motifs, original cloth spine bound in at the rear. Condition: Gentle toning to the page edges in fine binding. Ref: 112671 Price: HK$ 8,000
Loosely based on Pasternak’s life after moving out of Moscow, Lara being modelled on his mistress, Olga Ivinskaya. The manuscript was being smuggled out of Russia in 1957 - ’You are hereby invited to watch me face the firing squad.’ said Pasternak on handing the manuscript over. After the publication of the English translation in 1958 Doctor Zhivago spent 26 weeks on the New York times bestseller list. This is the first edition of that translation.
The epic film adaptation by David Lean, starring Omar Sharif and Julie Christie, won 5 Oscars and 3 Baftas, and cemented Doctor Zhivago’s place in film folklore. Several years before the start of the Second World War, Pasternak (1890-1960) and his wife settled in Peredelkino, a village for writers several miles from Moscow. He was filled with a love of life that gave his poetry a hopeful tone. This is reflected in the name Zhivago, derived from the Russian word for live.
Frowned upon by the Soviet authorities, Doctor Zhivago was smuggled abroad by his friend Isaiah Berlin and published in an Italian translation by the Italian publishing house Feltrinelli in 1957.
Listed in The Times' Novel List Top 60 Poll [2013].
The first edition in English was published simultaneously by Collins & Harvill in London and Pantheon in New York. The publishing date was September 1958 but they appeared on the market in August 1958. [Biondi].
Octavo (binding size 21.5x15cm), pp. 510. Elegantly bound in full scarlet morocco, spine with gilt lettering and decorative motifs, original cloth spine bound in at the rear. Condition: Gentle toning to the page edges in fine binding. Ref: 112671 Price: HK$ 8,000