A first edition of Pushkin’s novel “Yevgeny Onegin” is sold at a Petersburg auction

On May 27, the first complete edition of Alexander Pushkin’s novel “Yevgeny Onegin”, which was published before the poet’s death, will be up for sale at a Petersburg auction, a spokesperson for the Russian auction house said.
The spokesman said that the poetic novel “Yevgeny Onigin” by the great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837) was published over the years 1825-1832 in parts (editions). Each edition includes one part of the poetic novel. Therefore, for the Russian reader in the first third of the nineteenth century, the novel was like a television series for the contemporary viewer.

The Russian auction house sells 8 volumes of the novel in one book, as it is considered the most valuable and rare Russian book.

The book has an initial price of 12 million rubles, equivalent to about $ 162,000.

The spokesman explained that a similar edition was sold in 2019 at the auction house “Christie” for 467.3 thousand pounds (582 thousand dollars).

The Russian auction house will also offer two editions of Pushkin’s poems “The Criminals Brothers” in 1827 (1.6 – 1.8 million rubles) and “The Captive of the Caucasus” in 1822 (1.8 – 2.2 million rubles), as well as rare signatures, including that of composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky on a billboard Portrait of him (700 thousand rubles).

This year, the Russian auction house is offering 311 masterpieces, including art, history, law and literature publications.

Source: TASS