DOCTOR ZHIVAGO

First UK edition, first printing. Publisher's original red cloth with gilt titles to the spine, in dustwrapper. A very good or better copy, the binding square and firm, the cloth bright and fresh. The contents, with a previous owner's name and date, and a strip of spotting to the front endpaper, are otherwise clean throughout. Complete with the rubbed and slightly darkened dustwrapper that has some small nicks at the corners. Not price-clipped (21s net to the front flap).

Owing to Boris Pasternak's political views, Doctor Zhivago was refused publication in the Soviet Union. The manuscript was subsequently smuggled to Italy, where it was first published in 1957. This British first edition appeared in 1958, the same year Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. The novel later inspired the 1965 film adaptation of the same name, directed by David Lean and starring Omar Sharif and Julie Christie. The film received widespread critical acclaim and won multiple Academy Awards.