ANNA KARENINA. [Translated by Rochelle S. Townsend,with an Introduction by C. Day Lewis.]

UK,8vo HB,no dw/dj,1st thus.[THIS BOOK IS PRODUCED IN FULL CONFORMITY WITH THE AUTHORISED ECONOMY STANDARDS advice/notification.Stated THE BOOK SOCIETY LONDON NINETEEN FORTY-THREE to foot of the title page.For a book of its age and given the period of production,i.e. 1942- 1947 - with wartime paper-rationing, and the poor quality of paper generally used and the survival rates of air-raids on domestic and commercial properties,i.e publishers+ printers.Any dw/dj would have been of substandard quality and prone to subsequent disintegration and usually discarded - as possible in this example,or be reverse printed - possibly coming from an entirely different book/title.] VG+. Pencilled owner name to half-title page. Bright,clean,publisher's original maroon cloth bds (boards) with bright, crisp,stamped gilt single line border edge to top+bottom of upper board, which is also with an illustration decoration of a moth being attracted to a candlesticked,lit candle,centrally to upper board,rear board plain and undecorated,gilt letters and publisher's device to a slightly dulled/sunned spine/backstrip,and immaculate 3-colour block (b/w+grey) artwork illustrated eps by Eric Fraser - with scenes depicted from the novel itself. Negligible shelf-wear,bumping or creasing to edges and corners - no nicks,tears,splits or fraying present.Top+fore-edges though lightly toned are clean and without foxing/spotting; contents bright,tight,clean,solid and sound - no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corners,appears unread - apart from my own collation.The paper used for the text block is very thin and light and without any foxing/spotting.Laid in loosely,is a blue-grey card 'Book Society' bookmark with brown ink lettered listings of the principal characters and approximate order of other characters' appearance to front+back of same,respectively.UK,8vo HB,no dw/dj,1st edn thus,v-xivpp+2-714pp [paginated] includes an introduction by C. Day Lewis,a list of principal characters in family groups,Pts I-VIII,plus [unpaginated] half-title+title pages, publisher's blurb/note with contents list/table to its reverse. Anna Karenina was started by Tolstoy in 1873 and finished in 1876.Like its predecessor 'War and Peace',it first appeared (1875 and 1876) in 'The Russian Messenger',a Moscow magazine; but the serialisation ended abruptly in 1877,when a quarrel with the editor resulted from the author's sarcasm against Russian volunteers for the Serb revolution against the Turks.Publication as a triple-decker (three-volumes) was completed in 1878.
Various characters and incidents in 'Anna Karenina' have links with the author's own life.The name of his eldest son,Serioja (Sergei),is given to the Karenina boy.Tolstoy's brother Dmitri lived with a woman called Masha; so,in the book,does Levin's brother,Nikolai,who dies under circumstances similar to those under which Dmitri Tolstoy died.
Tolstoy often projected himself into Levin,whether for episodes or for the spiritual strivings at the end of the book.He,like Levin, had a nurse housekeeper called Agafia Mihailovna; scribbled his proposal of marriage in chalk; showed his wife-to-be,shortly before marriage,the diary of his past indulgences; and mislaid his shirt on the wedding morning.He sent away from Yasnaya Polyana,unceremoniously,a foppish young man who had infatuated his younger sister-in-law; just as Levin sends away Vasenka Veslovsky,who pays court to Kitty.
The novel itself was suggested by the life and self-inflicted death of a neighbouring landowner's mistress,Also an Anna, whose post-mortem Tolstoy attended after she had thrown herself under a train.
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