O Proischozhdenii Vidov [On the Origin of the Species]. 1864

DARWIN, Charles (1809-1882), and A. Rachinsky (translator). O Proischozhdenii Vidov... [On the Origin of the Species]. St Petersburg: Glazunov, 1864.

First edition in Russian of Darwin’s Origin. Whilst Darwin’s theories had been referred to in Russian periodicals since 1860, it was this complete translation by the botanist Sergei Rachinsky (who had prepared the ground with an interim essay) that engaged, thoroughly and immediately, contemporary Russian readers. It pervaded the sciences, of course, but also philosophy, politics, economics and literature: Dostoevsky confronted the implications of Darwinism in Notes from Underground published in the same year, then embedded them in the most memorable literary portrait of nihilism, Crime and Punishment’s Raskolnikov, in 1866. Tolstoy alludes to the theory of natural selection, for example, in chapter 10 of Anna Karenina.

Octavo (227 x 152mm). With 4-pp. advertisements and one engraved plate (some spotting). Contemporary quarter calf, spine stamped in blind (head of spine defective, two further chips, hinges cracked but holding, extremities rubbed). Provenance: M. P. Nikolov (shelfmark stamp to ffep) – Igor Miamlin (exlbris).

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