[Oedipus in Athens; Fingal; Dmitry Donskoy].
St. Petersburg, Ivan Glazunov, 1816
Vladislav Ozerov (1769-1816) wrote only five tragedies in his lifetime, but they met with tremendous success. The public liked the atmosphere of sensibility and romanticism that he infused into the classical forms, but it was these same attributes which were later criticised by conservative critics such as Shishkov, or even Pushkin and Griboedov.
Ozerov's first success was Oedipus in Athens (1804), a wry comment on Alexander I's rumoured implication in the murder of his father Paul. The public was delighted with his next tragedy, Fingal (1805), staged with superb sets representing sombre Scottish scenery. However it was Dmitry Donskoy (1807) which became Ozerov's most popular work, thanks to its strong patriotic message: it was staged within days of the Battle of Eylau, which took place in East Prussia between Napoleon's Grande Armée and the Russian army.
The three works found here are all second editions, published in the year of Ozerov's death.
Second editions, 3 vols in one. 8vo (25.5 x 20 cm); engraved portrait frontispiece by Nikolai Utkin after A. Notbek, 73 (incl. half-title and title), [2]; 50pp.; 82pp.; contemporary half-leather over green boards; rebacked.
Sopikov 11978, 11967, 11887; cf. for the Works Fekula 5015 and Obolyaninov Portraits 314; cf. Terras 144.
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