60 Great Books Bauman Rare Books - 18 - “One Of The Great Novels Of World Literature”: First Edition Of Tolstoy’s War And Peace, A Remarkable Copy 15. TOLSTOY, Leo. Voina i Mir [War and Peace]. Moscow, 1868-69. Six volumes bound in three. Octavo, 20th-century three-quarter brown morocco-gilt; original front wrappers of parts 2-5 bound in. $48,500. Rare first edition of Tolstoy’s War and Peace, one of the greatest novels ever written, in the original Russian, handsomely bound. Seven years in the writing, War and Peace is undeniably the greatest literary work relating to the Napoleonic wars. “This picture of Russian life, set against a background of Napoleon’s invasion, is one of the great novels of world literature” (Hornstein, Reader’s Companion to World Literature, 555-56). War and Peace has proved remarkably influential. German novelist Thomas Mann noted of the novel, “The pure narrative power of his work is unequaled. Seldom did art work so much like nature.” Unlike Tolstoy’s other masterpiece, Anna Karenina, War and Peace first appeared in full in book form, not in periodicals, though the first two parts did appear under the title “Tysiacha Vosemsot Piatyi God” (“The Year 1805”) in 1865 in the journal Russkii Vestnik. War and Peace was self-published; Tolstoy contracted Ris, advanced 4500 rubles for the printing of 4800 copies, and promised 30 percent of the gross profit to the printer and the proofreader. The enterprise showed a handsome return: the novel retailed for 10 rubles, and quickly went into a second edition following enthusiastic reviews. Kilgour 1195. Prerevolutionary owner’s ink stamps on title pages (Iv.P. Barsukov); discreet owner ink signatures. Only occasional foxing to text, a few instances of faint marginal dampstaining in Volumes I and II, bindings handsome. A beautiful copy, rare and desirable.
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