Books

First edition in English, first issues throughout, with each title page dated 1886 and with the publisher's imprint on each copyright page. Sets are often found in a mixed state. Published in three pairs of volumes from January to August 1886, it precedes Vizetelly's London edition of October. The translator Clara Bell (née Poynter, 1835-1927) was fluent in a remarkable range of European languages, rendering into English works by Ibsen, Balzac, and Georg Ebers, among others, in genres including romance, art, music, travel, and biography. George du Maurier thought her "the cleverest woman of our acquaintance" (p. 202). Although resident in London, she was regularly published in New York by William S. Gottsberger, who had already issued many of her translations to great acclaim. Her two-page postscript at the beginning of the fifth volume comments on her scheme of transliterating Russian names. War and Peace (1865-69) was first translated into a foreign language in Princess Irina Ivanovna Paskevich's French edition of 1879. Her second edition of 1884 was hailed in de Vogüé's influential survey Le Roman Russe (1886) and was used as the basis for Bell's translation. The period saw the first flush of enthusiasm for previously disregarded Russian novelists. The US editions were later reissued, the title pages with later dates and with Gottsberger's imprint removed from the verso. Three parts in six vols, small octavo. Original brown cloth, lettering on spines in gilt, eagle motifs on covers in gilt, decorative borders to covers in black, brown endpapers, top edges brown. Publisher's advertisements at rear of vols 1, 2, 4, and 5. Spines ends and inner hinges repaired, a little skilful recoloring in places, couple of corners worn, vol. I cloth slightly faded, others bright, upper edges and endpapers damp stained, text unaffected. A very good set. Line-Ettlinger-Gladstone 104. Daphne du Maurier, The Young George du Maurier, 1952.

War and Peace is a novel by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy, first published serially, then in its entirety in 1869. It is regarded as one of Tolstoy's finest literary achievements and remains a classic of world literature. The narrative chronicles the history of the French invasion of Russia through the eyes of five Russian aristocratic families and reflects on the philosophical themes of war, peace, and the human condition.