BERKELEY, CALIF. — The top lot in PBA Galleries Auctions & Appraisers’ sale of books, manuscripts and art on September 2 was a first edition of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Brothers Karamazov, which sold for $20,400 with buyer’s premium. The two volumes were presented in period quarter leather and boards, spine lettered and ruled in gilt. The rare first edition is considered the culminating masterpiece in the career of one of Russia’s greatest novelists. In a multidimensional study of parricide, Dostoevsky portrays the disintegration of the Russian family and society in the 1870s, attacks socialism and atheism, satirizes political reforms of the period and deals with the problem of human guilt. “An exceptional copy in what is undoubtedly a Russian binding of the period,” said the auction house. A more extensive review of this sale will follow.
