POUCHKINE Alexandre Œuvres complètes [en russe : Sochineniia…].

Kilgour, 890 ; Smirnov-Sokol'skii, 44 ; Pushkin, A Collection of First Editions, London, Bernard Quaritch Ltd, 2006, n°18 (without the liost of subscribers).

Fine example of the first collected edition of Pushkin's works, which includes work not published in the poet's lifetime. The first 8 volumes were planned and edited by his friend V.A. Zhukovskii and the last three were published by subscription by Il'ia Glazunov; the first of these, volume 9, bearing the publisher's signature certifying that it is copy no.1553.

The first eight volumes have been published one year after the death of the writer by his friend Vasily Andreyevich Zhukovsky (1783-1852), the most famous poet in Russia before Pushkin, the importer of romanticism in poetry Russian, tutor of Tsarevich Alexander, the defender of the Decembrists and protector of Gogol.

Volumes IX to XI, which contain unpublished works were published by subscription in 1841 by an association including Ilja Glazunov and Matvei Zaikine. Volume IX of the present copy is signed by Zaitkine and numbered 1553.

Volume IX, contains in first edition the first twenty-seven Small Poems, The Brazen Horseman, Galoub, and The Last three poems; Peter’s Guest  appears here in a version different from those printed during the lifetime of the author.

Volume X contains in first edition The Negro of Peter the Great, The Chronicle of the village of Goro Khina and Scenes from the days of chivalry.

In Volume XI appear for the first time On Milton by Chateaubriand and his version of Paradise Lost (all retranslated by Pushkin), Moreau Brigadier de Brazey’ notes on the campaign of 1711campaign, and several corrections by Pushkin for his project for the publication of Selected poems.

Finally, it should be noted, that Volumes IX and X, contain many poems in first edition. They had been published before – fully or partially – in the journal The Contemporary, founded by Pushkin, and include, among others, Doubrovsky, Egyptian Nights, Roslavlev and The Last of Joan of Arc's parents.

Complete, with portrait of  Pushkin engraved by Nikolai Utkin according Kiprensky (Volume I) and 2 pages of facsimiles bound in at the of volume VIII (not described by Kilgour).

Without the list of subscribers at the end of Volume XI, signaled by Kilgour, but not present in all copies. According to our colleague Jean-Baptiste de Proyart, it is not a list of subscribers but a list of the names of Generals inserted at the end of brigadier Moreau de Brazey’s notes. But the latter, with a continued pagination at the end of the volume, is present in our copy. With Kilgour claiming 4 leaves of list of subscribers with separate pagination (1-8), it seems reasonable to think that the document actually exists.

The first overview of the work of the prince of Russian writers.

Fine copy.

Volume I rebound in style, hinges of vol. 10 restored.