Poor Folk: Translated from the Russian of F. Dostoievsky by Lena Milman, with an Introduction by George Moore

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Poor Folk: Translated from the Russian of F. Dostoievsky by Lena Milman, with an Introduction by George Moore

London:

Elkin Mathews and John Lane,

1894.

Unique morocco binding with Beardsley design, presented to “Violet” by Lena Milman.

With No.20. There was no overstating the hostility of conservative British bookbuyers to “foreign” literature, especially French, though also Russian. Not until 1894 was Poor Folk (1846), the first novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821–1881), translated into English. Its translator, Lena Milman (1862–1914), was an architectural historian and Yellow Book contributor. Poor Folk became the third title in the “Keynotes Series,” which John Lane oversaw. (From the start of their partnership, Elkin Mathews was more interested in publishing poetry.) Once again, Beardsley created a cover and title-page that drew both commentary and visual parodies, as journalists and critics seized on the offending drainpipe. The clothbound copy here was a gift from the Irish novelist George Moore (1852–1933), author of the Introduction, to the poet Arthur Symons (1865–1945). Milman presented the other copy, beautifully bound with Beardsley’s design in gold-on-leather, to “Violet” (possibly the novelist Violet Hunt, 1862–1942).

From the Mark Samuels Lasner Collection, University of Delaware Library, Museums and Press