CONRAD, Joseph (1857-1924). Under Western Eyes, London, 1911, 8vo, half title, 32-pages of publisher's advertisements at the end dated August 1911, original red cloth gilt, uncut. FIRST EDITION.

CONRAD, Joseph (1857-1924).  Under Western Eyes. London: Methuen & Co., 1911. 8vo (192 x 125mm). Half title, publisher's advertisements on the verso of half title, 32-pages of publisher's advertisements at the end dated August 1911 (some faint spotting to the first few leaves including the title). Original red cloth, the spine lettered and decorated in gilt, uncut (a few spots to the spine, the spine very slightly darkened). Provenance: The Property of a Collector. FIRST EDITION, with the advertisements at the end as noted above: most copies of the first edition are recorded with the advertisements dated September 1911. "[Under Western Eyes] is a most distinguished work, and must be counted among those upon which Conrad's status as one of the great English masters securely rests. It is related to The Secret Agent not only be the revolutionists, but by the theme of isolation ... The earlier inside account of [Razumov's] tormented consciousness shows the influence of Dostoievsky [sic], and the effect is to bring out the antipathetic detachment of Conrad's radical attitude from all that Dostoievsky stands for. If Conrad knows his Doistoievsky, he sees him through 'western eyes', and sees him, along with 'the lawlessness of autocracy and lawlessness of revolution', as among the 'moral conditions ruling over a large part of this earth's surface' that the old language teacher, in telling Razumov's story, perceives himself to be rendering" (F. R. Leavis, The Great Tradition). Cagle A14a; Keating 88; Smith 15; Wise 19: "The novel appeared as a serial in The English Review from December 1910 to October 1911, inclusive."