Item #4745 THE OVERCOAT AND OTHER STORIES. Nikolay Gogol, Constance Garnett, stories, translation.
THE OVERCOAT AND OTHER STORIES

THE OVERCOAT AND OTHER STORIES

London: Chatto & Windus, 1923. First UK Edition. First English language edition of Constance Garnett's translation of The Overcoat, issued as Volume III of her five-volume Works of Nikolay Gogol, published between 1923-28. Contents include "The Nevsky Prospect," "A Madman's Diary," "The Prisoner," "The Carriage," "The Nose," "The Portrait," and "The Overcoat," a tragic story which Vladimir Nabokov called "the greatest Russian short story ever written..." (The Art of Translation, 1941). Garnett's English translation is significant, still in print today, preceded by Isabel Hapgood's translation (as "The Cloak") in St. John's Eve, and other stories from "Evenings at the farm" and "St. Petersburg stories" (Crowell, 1886). Scarce in dustjacket, with no copies found in the auction record. cf.Line, p.19 (Bibliography of Russian Literature in English Translation to 1945). Item #4745

First Impression (and first in English). Octavo (19.5cm); denim blue cloth, with titles stamped in royal blue on spine; blue topstain; dustjacket; viii,279,[1]pp. Gentle sunning to spine, topstain faded, owners name (in ink) to front endpaper, with the faintest suggestion of foxing to a few preliminary leaves and right edge of textblock; Near Fine. Dustjacket is gently sunned (particularly at spine), lightly edgeworn, with some small nicks and shallow losses to spine ends and corners; tiny bits of sticker remnant and a few faint stains to spine, with a neat 2" split at lower front joint; still a complete, Very Good, unrestored example.

Price: $1,000.00