KRYLOV, Ivan Andreevich.

Basni I. A. Krylova v IX Knigakh. [Fables of I. A. Krylov in 9 Books].

Stock Code

103126

St Petersburg, Eduard Veimar, 1852

£3,500

A rare edition of Krylov's fables with superb hand-coloured illustrations.

Ivan Krylov (1769-1844) is Russia's best known fabulist. While many of his earlier fables were loosely based on Aesop's and La Fontaine's, later fables were original work, often satirising the incompetent bureaucracy that stifled social progress in his time.

The wonderful illustrations include a frontispiece of Krylov surrounded by the animals of his fables. The colouring in this example is especially vivid and it is a rarity to find such fine decorative boards for a 19th century Russian work, indeed we couldn't find any other copies of this work ever sold in the original boards. The biography is written by Pyotr Alexandrovich Pletnev, critic and editor of Sovremennik who opposed Belinksiy's views on Russian literature. He befriended Alexander Pushkin, who dedicated his novel in verse, Evgeniy Onegin to him.

Description

8vo (20 x 13 cm); [iv], xxiv, 262 pp., [5], biography of Krylov written by P. A. Pletnev, 25 hand-coloured full-page lithographs by Ulyanov including a frontispiece, plates on various colour paper, minor staining to text block, title foxed; original hand-coloured lithographic boards dated 1848, spine skilfully rebacked, retaining most of the original design, some wear to boards but overall good copy.