King Lear. First edition of Pasternak's translation.

Shakespeare, William [King Lear]. Korol’ Lir. Translation by Boris Pasternak. Afterword and comments by Mikhail Morozov. Covers, frontispiece and headpieces by Vladimir Favorsky. Moskva, Khudozhestvennaya literatura, 1949. 8vo, frontispiece, 161, [3] pp., ill. In publisher’s illustrated wrappers and modern clamshell box. In good condition, lightly rubbed, small losses to spine, foxing. First edition of 'King Lear' in Pasternak's translations. One of 10 000 copies published. Signed for print on November 24, 1948. Boris Pasternak (1890-1960) became a translator at the end of the 1930s, 'not by good fortune' – it was almost the only way to work as a man of a letter. He translated eight plays by Shakespeare – 'Hamlet', 'Romeo and Juliet', 'Antony and Cleopatra', 'Othello', 'Henry IV' (two parts), 'King Lear', and 'Macbeth'.Pasternak finished 'King Lear"s translation in the fall of 1947. He described 'King Lear' as a 'quiet tragedy' in which love is the main victim. In the letter to philol