A La Recherche du Bonheur

1885, sixth edition signed by Scottish educationalist Sophie Weisse

Author

Leo Tolstoy, as Comte Leon Tolstoi, traduit et precede d'une preface par M E Halperne

Publisher

Perrin et Cie, Paris, 1885

Printing Details

Sixth edition. Hardback, rebound in half-leather with five raised bands and gilt titling to spine. Page edges dyed red. 18 × 11.5cm, 267pp. French text.

This copy carries a gift inscription from Sophie Weisse dated 1891 from Eton. Weisse was a Scottish music teacher and founder of Northlands, an all-girls school in Surrey. She was one of the first to recognise musicologist Donald Tovey's talent for music at the age of four, and took it upon herself to manage his education, she arranged for him to study counterpoint with Walter Parratt and James Higgs, and composition with Hubert Parry.

A collection of seven short stories by Tolstoy, being D'ou vient le mal; Le Filleul; Les Deux Vieillards; Ce qui fait vivre les hommes; Histoire vraie; Le Moujik Pakhom; and Feu qui flambe ne s'eteint plus.

Condition

A good copy but with some wear. The leather is heavily scuffed to the corners but in very good condition to the spine. The dedicatee's name has been neatly snipped from Sophie Weisse's inscription leaving a missing segment to the top of the page. The main body of text has occasional blotchy foxing but remains in strong readable condition.