A Vital Question, or What Is To Be Done? Nathan Haskell Dole and S. S. Skidelsky, trans.

New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co, 1886. First Thus. Hardcover. Very good. First Crowell Edition of ?

TCHERNUISHEVSKY (Chernyshevsky), Nikolai. A Vital Question, or What Is To Be Done? Nathan Haskell Dole and S. S. Skidelsky, trans. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., 1886. Blank leaf + TP + [iii] - ix = preface + [1] - 462 + blank leaf. Octavo. First US Crowell Edition.

An alternate translation of ? (A Vital Question, or What Is To Be Done?) was published the same year as the Tucker edition. Priority seems to be with the Tucker, since it appeared in serialized form from 1884 - 1886. “The other American translation… was published by Nathan Haskell Dole and S.S. Skidelsky.” Unlike Tucker, Dole and Skidelsky were fluent in Russian. Therefore, this translation was made directly from the Russian, rather than from the French, so it remains truer to the original. While some of Vera and Lopukhov’s marriage life was omitted in this version (because it might have been too risqué), the Dole and Skidelsky translation does contain the important fourth dream in which Chernyshevsky’s vision finds its fullest expression. Nathan Haskell Dole also translated many of the works of Tolstoy as well as other works in French and Italian.

CONDITION: Very good in original publisher’s blue cloth. Spines worn with slight loss to head and heel. Stamped in gilt. Covers with some spotting. Bumping to corners. Foxing. Pages clean and bright.

MORE PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST