Pokhozhdeniia Chichikova ili Mertvyia Dushi [The Adventures of Chichikov or Dead Souls].

in the publisher's binding

An impressive large format illustrated edition of Dead Souls, in the original decorative binding.

From the moment prolific Petersburg publisher Adolf Marks bought the rights to Gogol's works he set upon creating this impressive anniversary edition of Dead Souls. Taking five years to complete, his efforts were highly praised and it is still considered the finest illustrated version and indeed a landmark in the history of Russian illustrated literature. The utmost care was taken in researching Chichikov's 1840s Russia, photographing and sketching minute details in peasant dwellings and provincial towns. Numerous artists were commissioned to speed up the publication process but it proved to be just too expensive to print the ten helio-gravures in Petersburg and they were sent all the way to Vienna to be completed.

Large 4to (365 x 290 mm); engraved portrait frontispiece by Brokhaus of Leipzig, half-title, title-page, 10 plates protected by tissue-guards, small tear to tissue guard of frontispiece, 23 full-page illustrations and numerous in text by Gnedich, Dalkevich, Solomko, Andreev, Afanasev, Samokish-Sudkovskaya and others, with ornaments and initials by N. Samokish, top edge gilt; publisher's morocco backed decorative cloth, rebacked preserving original spine, a very good copy.