Anna Karenina [ Anne Rice's Personal Copy ]

Leo Tolstoy

Penguin Classics, 2003. Illustrated by Coralie Bickford-Smith. Cloth panels. Near Fine / No dust jacket as issued. Item #5341
ISBN: 9780141199610

A later edition of this Penguin Classics "Anna Karenina" made special by its provenance; from the personal library of beloved writer Anne Rice. Tightly bound, spotless interior save for pages with Anne Rice's elegant penmanship, with some rubbing and discoloration to the front panel where the author's name is printed, else near Fine.

Signed by Anne Rice on the title page, dated and with a very personal inscription: "Searching always for the genius of Tolstoy./ So brilliant./ Anne Rice / Summer, 2017/ La Quinta."

About 17 pages of personal annotations by Anne Rice, with one tab affixed at page 277, chapter XII, seemingly highlighting a paragraph about the inner emotional landscape of a young girl, denied to the character Levin (Anne Rice seemed to take special notice of both Tolstoy's references and scholarly analyses regarding his grappling with women; their spiritual and psychological freedoms and their place in society).

Also present is a paragraph written by Anne Rice on the half-title page: "So Russians make available to us knowledge, wisdom and worldviews that we can't accept from our own English literature novelists." Discovered also is a uniquely personal annotation on page 228, dated August 29, 2017, where Anne Rice comments on a serendipitous coincidence between Tolstoy's character "Mlle Varenka" and a personal relationship of hers.

Rice seems to have had a longstanding passion for the great novelist Leo Tolstoy, with dozens of heavily annotated copies of his published writings including scholarly editions in her personal library. Her notes in this edition all appear dated as 2017. 2017 seemed to be a year of Tolstoy for Anne Rice. In fact, in this edition, she's written on page XV, "9-8-17/ In love with Tolstoy." We've found similar Tolstoy-centric notes from 2017 in many of our other Tolstoy related editions from her library, including our copy of "Understanding Tolstoy," which Rice dated September 2017, "A Confession and Other Religious Writings" dated Oct-Nov 2017, and "A Daring Coiffeur" dated Oct 13, 2017. Her extensive notes in these editions depict nothing short of a love affair with the writer.

Additional notes in this edition include Anne Rice wondering about Leo Tolstoy's own life story when compared to his heroine, Anna Karenina. About 17 pages of notes, annotations and underlinings, largely in the front portion of this edition.

Anne Rice appeared to have a habit of filling her personal library, fiction, nonfiction, and scholarly works alike, with extensive handwritten annotations. Her notes crowded the margins and spilled between lines, often extending to commentary on supplementary material, footnotes, translation details, and even indexes. She meticulously dated her readings, rereadings, and accompanying notes, offering future readers an intimate, chronological experience, with the layered annotations almost tracing the evolution of her thoughts, insights, and writing process over time. Each volume complimented by her notations feels like her personal dialogue with the author and material, with each being extremely unique and one of a kind. An absolute delight to page through her thoughts alongside Tolstoy's enduring literary masterpiece.

This edition was translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volkhonsky (2000).

Price: $325.00  other currencies