Books

First edition in English, first impression, of the first appearance of Dostoevsky in English and the third title in John Lane's Keynote Series, with covers and title page designed by Aubrey Beardsley. The novel was first published in Russian in 1846. The translator Lena Milman (1862-1914) was an architectural historian and literary critic known to Lane through her contributions to The Yellow Book. She was close friends with Thomas Hardy, Henry James, and George Moore, acting as "a sounding board for his aesthetic theories" (Gerber, p. 97). It was she who encouraged him to provide the introduction to this edition. Provenance: Martin Birmbaum (1878-1970), a New York art dealer, critic, and author, with his attractively designed bookplate on the front pastedown. Birmbaum was an avid Beardsley collector: "Long before Mr Birmbaum dreamed of a gallery, it seems, he knew his Beardsley well... He secured everything; writings, prints, association material, everything" (McBride, p. 372). In 1911, he published an essay on the artist, which included a catalogue of the first Beardsley exhibition in America. Octavo. Original yellow cloth, spine and front cover lettered and with decoration by Beardsley in black and gilt, edges untrimmed. Illustrated title page printed in red and black; 14 pp. of publisher's advertisements at end. Spine ends and corners bumped, occasional faint soiling to cloth as often, minor marks to a couple of pages, else clean. A very good copy. Helmut E. Gerber, George Moore in Transition. Letters to T. Fisher Unwin and Lena Milman, 1894-1910, 1968; Henry McBride, "Introducing Modern Art", The Dial, vol. LXVIII, 1920.

Notes from Underground is a novella by Fyodor Dostoevsky that presents the interior monologue of a man living in St. Petersburg, Russia. The protagonist, often referred to as the underground man, retreats into a self-imposed isolation from society and articulates his world views through a series of contradictory and complex thoughts and ideas. The work is split into two parts, with the first titled 'Underground' and the second, 'A Propos of the Wet Snow.' It is often regarded as one of the first existentialist novels.