Beschreibung:

[PUSHKIN, ZHUKOVSKII and others]. Sobranie stikhotvorenii , [Collection of poems]. [Manuscript. Russia]. 1829. A fine contemporary manuscript collection of poems by the best writers of the Golden Age of Russian literature, especially Pushkin, embodying the transition to Romanticism. These remarkable volumes, produced in 1829, belonged to Pyotr Pestinsky (1812-1891), an official of the Ministry of Railways, a young man who must have been passionate about Russian poetry and especially keen on the great changes in literary taste which were taking place in Russia during the 1820s. The collection is a very substantial (over 500 pages) and very perceptive tribute pre-romantic and romantic works of V. Zhukovskii and A. Pushkin, whose writings, which had only very recently appeared in print, together make up nearly a third of the total. Twenty-five Puskin pieces are included - of special interest are Demon , Graf Nulin , Talisman and Bakhchisaraiskii Fontan . Featured authors also include the Dekabrist K. Ryleev, G. Derzhavin and N. Karamzin. The collection also features unattributed poems as well as passages from the early phase of Russian opera and vaudeville, such as excerpts from V. Verstovskii’s Dom sumashedshikh, a loose translation from the French for which he wrote the music, first staged at the Bolshoi in 1822. The careful preparation of this compilation suggests that it may have been a gift, as they include a few footnotes and a final section with definitions of obscure words, in the guise of a printed book. It stand as a fascinating witness to a momentous period in the Golden Age of Russian literature. Two volumes, quarto (280 x 199), in all about 570 page written in brown ink in an elegant hand, occasional footnotes. Contemporary leather-backed boards (minor wear to extremities). Provenance: Pyotr Pestinsky (1812-1891).