B A U M A N R A R E B O O K S J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 5 10 * * * RARE FIRST EDITIONS IN ENGLISH OF DOSTOEVSKY'S THE FRIEND OF THE FAMILY AND THE GAMBLER, 1887 10. (DOSTOEVSKY, Fyodor) DOSTOIEFFSKY, Fedor. The Friend of the Family; and The Gambler. London, 1887. Octavo, original green cloth. Housed in a custom clamshell box. $6200 First editions in English of Dostoevsky’s Friend of the Family and The Gambler, two of his finest and most influential early novellas, with The Friend begun while imprisoned in Siberia and The Gambler written against a desperate three-week deadline, an electrifying tale of obsession that “rings true in part because it was true.” Together as issued in Volume XXII of Vizetelly’s One-Volume Novels with the translation of Frederick Whishaw. This rare volume contains the first editions in English of two major early novellas, The Friend of the Family (Selo Stepanchikovo, 1859) and The Gambler (Igrok, 1866). In Friend of the Family, we find Dostoevsky “poised to write the great fiction of his maturity… a striking, accomplished and highly entertaining story” (Avery, Preface in Village of Stepanchikovo). The Gambler is viewed by Robert Louis Jackson as one of the “most brilliant and rewarding” of Dostoevsky’s shorter works (Frank in Freedom and Responsibility, 73-4). Begun while imprisoned in Siberia, Friend is “unique among Dostoevsky’s works in that it is a sustained exercise in comedy… He attached great importance to this work, and hoped it would enable him to return to the literary scene after his enforced absence.” In May 1859 he wrote of Friend as a turning point: “’I have put my soul, my flesh, my blood into it… It contains two colossal and typical characters that I’ve spent five years conceiving and recording… characters wholly Russian and poorly represented in Russian literature’… Gogol himself is the real-life model for its chief character, the despotic humbug Foma Fomich Opiskin… Dostoevsky injected all his pent-up gall against the artist turned false prophet and erring philosopher, parodying Gogol’s ‘revisionist’ view of Russian despotism.” Written under a deadline of only three weeks to pay off gambling debts against the threat of losing the rights to many of his works, The Gambler is itself a “story of cliffhangers.” Nearly destroyed by that deadline, he finally agreed to the assistance of a stenographer, Anna Grigoryevna Snitkina. He met the deadline with only hours to spare, and the two soon married. The novel was truly “Dostoevsky’s biggest gamble, and one that, unlike his attempt to win at roulette, paid off… The psychology of obsession and intoxicating humiliation described in this novel rings true in part because it was true” (Morson, Writing Like Roulette). With the translation of Russian-born British novelist Frederick Whishaw. Volume XXII in Vizetelly’s One-Volume Novels. Rear leaf of publisher’s advertisements; page of advertisements to half title verso. Friend of the Family issued serially in the November and December 1859 issues of the journal Otechestvennyye zapiski. LEG, 17. Small owner inkstamps to title page and lower margins of several leaves not affecting text. Text fresh with light scattered foxing mainly to preliminaries, light expert reinforcement to text block, faint rubbing to bright cloth.
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