Romeo i Dzhulʹetta / Vilʹi͡am Shekspir ; perevod s angliĭskogo Borisa Pasternaka.
1944
Items
Details
Title
Romeo i Dzhulʹetta / Vilʹi͡am Shekspir ; perevod s angliĭskogo Borisa Pasternaka.
Uniform title
Romeo and Juliet. Russian
Created/published
Moskva : Gos. izd-vo khudozhestvennoĭ lit-ry, 1944.
Description
128 pages, [4] leaves of plates : illustrations ; 20 cm
Note
This is a PRELIMINARY RECORD. It may contain incorrect information. The "FAST ACC" number is a temporary call number. Please email catalog@folger.edu for assistance.
Item Details
Call number
FAST ACC 270938 (quarto)
Folger-specific note
From dealer's description: "8vo (12.8 x 19.5 cm); pp. 128, [4] illustrations; 25000 copies; some loss at ends of spine, cover slightly foxed, two horizontal creases, upper right corner partially missing and lower right bumped, personal library stamp to title and p. 17, interior good with occasional slight spotting, stain to lower right corner of plates. Extremely rare first edition of Pasternak’s translation, with four woodcut illustrations by Fyodor Denisovich Konstantinov. Like other great authors of the Stalin era, Pasternak made a living by translating when officialdom barred his own works from publication. His seven Shakespeare plays, completed between 1940 and 1950, remain the classic Russian-language translations. Pasternak began work on Romeo and Juliet just before the outbreak of the Second World War but completed the bulk of it under trying, wartime conditions. Evacuated to the city of Chistopol in October 1941, he had difficulty producing serviceable typescripts and maintaining timely correspondence with potential publishers. The paper available to him degraded so quickly that some drafts were illegible by the time they reached Moscow, 1000 km to the East. But logistics were only one aspect of a protracted and endlessly frustrating publication process. Pasternak frequently clashed with his private editor, the leading Soviet Shakespeare scholar Mikhail Morozov. Both men were extremely opinionated, and, in many ways, they held opposing views of both Shakespeare and the art of translation. Pasternak also believed that political tensions with the United Kingdom were driving Soviet bureaucrats to stifle celebrations of English culture. Having been congratulated by the British embassy for his Shakespeare translations, he felt his continued efforts were a prime target. The release of this first edition in August 1944 was a great relief to Pasternak, who needed the cash and desired the closure of an authoritative text. Under Morozov’s guidance, Pasternak soon after prepared an alternative version of Romeo and Juliet for the State Children’s Publishers (Detgiz), simplified and trimmed of innuendo. WorldCat locates one copy in the United States, at Texas A&M. Also held by NYU Abu Dhabi and the Israeli National Library." Ordered from Neva RBM, D 9254, 2018-11-15, Soviet Shakespeare catalog, item 1. Purchase made possible by The Ann Jennalie Cook Acquisitions Fund.
Folger accession
270938