Anna Karenina
New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1886.
First American edition, with most of the presumed first issue points including floral endpapers, "13 Astor Place" to title page, sheets bulking at 35 mm.), but 6 pp. of ads at rear. viii, 5-773, [1, blank], [6, ads]. Bound in publisher's brown cloth stamped in gilt, ivy-patterned endpapers. Near Fine with light rubbing and light dampstaining to covers, irregular sunning to front board. Binding starting at p. iii, overopened throughout, and penciled gift inscription dated the year of publication to fly-leaf. One-inch split to title page at upper gutter, small corner crease up to p. 10, contents lightly toned. Line, Ettlinger and Gladstone 39.
The issue points of different printings of the first American edition of Anna Karenina have yet to be determined. This copy has six advertising pages at rear, including three full-page ads for books published in 1886. That, together with an inscription dated 1886, indicates a very early print date. Tolstoy's epic tale of the pursuit of happiness was well-received when it was published in English, eight years after it appeared as a three-volume novel in Russia. "All of the gnawing, agitating questions of the nineteenth century are brought up in Anna Karenina," wrote one contemporary reviewer. Those questions aren't fully answered, but they are explored in the dueling narratives of a woman's fall from grace and a man's rise to sublimity.
Price: $6,000