WITH VICTOR HUGO'S CONDOLENCES
MESHCHERSKY, Elim Petrovich, Prince.
Les roses noires par le prince Élim Mestscherskï.
Paris, Amyot, 1845.
8vo, pp. [4], 428; scattered foxing throughout, but still a very good copy, upper edges gilt, the others uncut, in French contemporary half morocco, spine lettered gilt.
First edition of this posthumous collection, which includes a short dramatisation of Pushkin’s The Gypsies, ‘un charmant poëme d’Alexandre Pouschkinn, le grand écrivain que pleure la Russie’.
The inspiration for the other pieces is often Russian, both historical (the False Dmitri; the story of Artamon Matveev, the ill-fated adviser of Peter the Great) and literary (his short drama ‘Svetlana’ is based on Zhukovsky’s famous ballad). Others highlight Meshchersky’s interests in European culture, with appearances from Raphael, Camoens, and Faust. Meshchersky served in Russian missions to Dresden, Turin, and Paris, and all his writings were published abroad: De la littérature russe (Marseilles, 1830); Lettres d’un russe, adressés à MM. les rédacteurs de la Revue Européenne (Nice, 1832); Les boréales (Paris, 1839); and Les roses noires (Paris, 1845). His sudden death at the age of just thirty-six moved Victor Hugo to write a letter of condolence to the young poet’s grieving mother, which is printed here on p. 425: ‘C’était un beau talent parmi les hommes; c’est une âme radieuse dans le ciel. Il avait tout reçu de la providence; rien ne lui avait été refusé. Il était en toute chose digne d’envie et de tendresse; c’était une nature d’exception, il a eu une destinée d’exception.’
OCLC locates two copies in France (BnF, Montpellier), three copies in the US (Duke, Kansas, Stanford), and one in the UK (BL).
Mezhov, Puschkiniana 3278.
