Is My Dead Souls a First Edition?

The points of issue

• The true first is Pokhozhdeniia Chichikova, ili Mertvyia dushi
• Poema [The Adventures of Chichikov, or Dead Souls
• A Poem], Universit
• (Moscow University Press), Moscow, 1842, large octavo (about 25 x 17 cm), 475 pages including the half-title and title, printed in an edition of 2,400 copies
• The title itself is a censorship point and the first thing to check: the Moscow censor refused the book, and after Gogol sent the manuscript to St Petersburg it was passed in March 1842 by the liberal censor Aleksandr Nikitenko subject to roughly thirty wording alterations and to the retitling that pushes 'The Adventures of Chichikov' forward and 'Dead Souls' back — the half-title and title leaf duly give visual precedence to the picaresque half of the title over the satirical half
• The volume carries an engraved title-page

How to confirm the first-printing statement

Publishers stated first printings differently by era. The decisive tells are a printed “First Edition/First Printing” statement, a number line whose lowest number is 1 (Random House ends at 2), or a dated first printing with no later printings listed. Paste your copyright page into the number-line decoder.

How to verify your copy, step by step

1. Find the copyright page — the verso (back) of the title page.
2. Confirm the first-edition statement — look for “First Edition,” “First Printing,” or the publisher’s equivalent wording.
3. Check for a number line or dated printing — the lowest number present is the printing; a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the tell.
4. Verify this is the British true first — not a later-market or reprint edition.
5. Rule out a book-club edition — a blind-stamp on the rear board or a jacket with no printed price marks a book-club copy.
6. Photograph four things — the front cover, spine, title page, and copyright page — the standard record for identification.

The dust jacket

For a collectible first edition the dust jacket matters as much as the book. Confirm the jacket is present and unclipped — the printed price should still be at the corner of the flap (a clipped corner or a price-less flap can indicate a book-club issue). First-state jackets can differ from later ones in the cover art, blurbs, or review quotations; where a specific first-state jacket point is known for this title it is noted above.

Binding & format

Where multiple bindings exist, the hardcover trade issue is usually (but not always) the precedence copy — confirm against the points above. Later printings often show cheaper cloth, thinner boards, or simplified spine stamping. A simultaneous signed or limited issue, when one exists, is a distinct state from the trade first.

Is this the true first?

Census confirmed on the Russian first: Moscow University Press, Moscow, 1842 is the true first. One refinement to the census wording: the first English-language appearance, 'Home Life in Russia. By a Russian Noble. Revised by the Editor of "Revelations of Siberia." In Two Volumes' (London: Hurst and Blackett, Successors to Henry Colburn, 13 Great Marlborough Street, 1854), is better described as an unauthorized and heavily doctored adaptation than as a piracy in the strict sense. It renders Part One only, with an altered ending, whole passages expunged and imaginative flourishes added, and was marketed to a Crimean-War-era British public as factual reportage on Russian life. Gogol is nowhere named on the title page — the attribution is to 'A Russian Noble' — and the volumes are bound in publisher's olive-green cloth, blind-stamped, spines lettered in gilt. It is itself a collected book alongside the Moscow 1842 first. Note that several dealer catalogues transcribe the title-page phrase as 'By a Russian Nobel'; the title page itself reads 'A RUSSIAN NOBLE' (verified against the 1854 scan), so treat 'Nobel' as a catalogue-transcription artifact rather than a point of issue.P-043063

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

No book-club issue applies to a book of this date. The reprint tells are edition-level: a second Russian edition followed in 1846 carrying Gogol's added preface, and posthumous collected-works printings follow from the 1850s — any preface by Gogol addressing the reader marks a copy as 1846 or later, not the 1842 first. In English, later nineteenth-century translations (e.g. the 1887 illustrated edition) are separate editions and not reissues of the 1854 Home Life in Russia.P-043064

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of Dead Souls a first edition?

A first edition of Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol (Universitetskaya Tipografiya) is identified by: The true first is Pokhozhdeniia Chichikova, ili Mertvyia dushi.

How do I tell the first printing from a later one?

Check the copyright page. A stated first edition, a number line ending in 1, or a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the key. Census confirmed on the Russian first: Moscow University Press, Moscow, 1842 is the true first.

Is the book-club edition the same as the first?

No book-club issue applies to a book of this date. The reprint tells are edition-level: a second Russian edition followed in 1846 carrying Gogol's added preface, and posthumous collected-works printings follow from the 1850s — any preface by Gogol addressing the reader marks a copy as 1846 or later, not the 1842 first. In English, later nineteenth-century translations (e.g. the 1887 illustrated edition) are separate editions and not reissues of the 1854 Home Life in Russia.

I have a first edition of Dead Souls — what should I do?

First, document the copy: photograph the copyright page (the number line and any edition statement) and the dust-jacket flap — an unclipped, priced jacket matters. Confirm the points of issue above against your copy, and use the free First Edition Checker to decode the printing. To sell, the author’s collecting guide covers the market. And if you are clearing books in the Albuquerque area, the New Mexico Literacy Project offers free pickup, any condition, and makes sure collectible copies are identified rather than discarded.

Glossary

First edition

Every copy printed from the first setting of type. Collectors usually want the first edition, first printing (the true first).

First printing / impression

A single press run from that setting. The first printing is the earliest and most desirable; later printings are still the first edition but not the true first.

Number line (printer's key)

A row of numbers on the copyright page (e.g. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1). The lowest number present is the printing — a line including 1 marks a first printing (Random House deliberately ends at 2).

Points of issue

Specific physical details — a stated edition, a number line, a typo, a jacket state — that identify the true first printing.

Book-club edition (BCE)

A reprint made for a book club. Tells include a blind-stamped dot or square on the rear board and a dust jacket with no printed price. Not the true first.

First thus

The first appearance of a particular version (first paperback, first illustrated, first U.S. printing) — a first of that kind, not the first edition of the work.