(Voina i Mir) [War and Peace]

Moskva [Moscow] T. Ris 1868-1869. First edition. Six parts in three volumes. 8vo. 225x150mm. Vol 1. Part I. [4], 297 [1bl],146; Part II. [4], 186. Vol 2. Part III. [4], 284; Part IV. [4], 336; Vol 3. Part V. [4], 323; Part VI. [4], 290. First edition issue points are present: part III, p227 for p127 and p265 for p255 and part IV, p153 for p253. Map on p239 of part IV. Smartly bound in modern red half morocco, marbled paper covered boards, with the title in French (Guerre et Paix) to the spine. Top edge gilt, marbled endpapers. Slight rubbing to corners. Internally very good, this is an excellent copy in superb condition of one of the cornerstones of Russian, and indeed any, literature. Described by Turgenev as "the epic, the history novel and the vast picture of the whole nation's life", War and Peace began as a serialised work called 1805 which first appeared in the magazine Russkiy Vestnik (The Russian Messenger). Parts of the novel were published in 1867 but Tolstoy was unhappy with it and set about a substantial revision of the work, his wife Sophia copying seven complete drafts. The final version, published as War and Peace, differed markedly from the part-serialised 1805 and was, despite some critics' difficulty in classifying the work, an instant success and recognised as marking a significant shift in what literary fiction could do.