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TOLSTOY, Leo (1828-1910). Zhivoi trup. Drama [The

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[Moscow]: A. L. Tolstoi, [1912]. 68 pp. Large 8vo (265 x 180 mm). With 12 photogravures after photographs by V[ladimir] G[rigorevich] Chertkov. Original lithographed wrappers. Condition: wrappers with light thumbsoiling, light chipping to extremities and minor tape repairs to verso of front and back; slight chipping to backstrip. Provenance: Fekula 5353. first edition of tolstoy's famous play. So upset by a performance of Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya at the Moscow Art Theater ("There is no real action"), Tolstoy decided to write his own play based on a true story about a woman who convinces her husband to fake his death so she might remarry. Although written about 1900, Zhivoi trup (also known as Redemption) was not published until after the author's death. Tolstoy never thought it was finished. His daughter Aleksandra published the play that his secretary Vladimir Chertkov edited in Russkoe slovo [The Russian Word] in 1911. Konstantin Stanislavski was the first to direct the drama at the Moscow Art Theater in 1911. It was soon playing in Saint Petersburg, Berlin, Vienna, Paris, and London. Jacob Adler starred in the first American production, one performed in Yiddish in New York City in November 1911. It has been filmed many times, as early as 1911 and as late as 1968.

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