COMING MAY 2021
The Nose
by Nikolai Gogol
A new translation by Stanislav Shvabrin
with artworks and a flipbook by William Kentridge
“[The translation] aims at giving the reader a sense of joy—mixed with a dash of bewilderment—that the Russian readers continue to derive from their interaction with this novella.”
Arion Press is delighted to announce a new English translation of Gogol’s classic novella incorporating 16 drawings with collage by renowned artist William Kentridge. This intricate artist book builds on the dazzling visual design of his celebrated production of Dmitri Shostakovich’s opera at The Metropolitan Opera in 2010. The original drawings were composed on tear sheets from the Illustrated London News and have been reproduced in full-color by offset lithography with specially tinted backgrounds. The Arion team’s close collaboration with the artist further resulted in a companion volume, “His Majesty Comrade Nose”, a flipbook derived from stills excerpted from Kentridge’s 8-channel video installation I Am Not Me, The Horse Is Not Mine. The flipbook depicts Kentridge in the guise of the socially climbing Nose, ascending a ladder and tumbling down in animated pieces … over and again.
The books are oblong, in a format evocative of a classic storybook. All copies are signed by the artist and presented in clamshell boxes which nest the book and its flipbook companion. The Deluxe edition is accompanied by an original photogravure “Surveying His Escape” with chine collé and kozo insets. The original translation and commentary were prepared by Stanislav Shvabrin, professor of Russian Language and Literature at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. No reader will be able to resist this edition of the tale Anton Chekhov christened as “the greatest short story ever written”.
Final products may vary from images shown here
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| Deluxe Edition | Variant Edition Sold Out | Limited Edition | |
| Book spine material | Maroon quarter leather | Maroon quarter leather | Maroon book cloth |
| Book sides material | Real cork paper | Real cork paper | Paper printed with cork pinboard motif |
| Binding style | Square-backed, hand-sewn | Square-backed, hand-sewn | Square-backed, hand-sewn |
| Flipbook included | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Box spine material | Flax color book cloth with bright red foil stamping | Flax color book cloth with bright red foil stamping | Yellow book cloth with dark red foil stamping |
| Box sides material | Paper printed with pinboard motif | Paper printed with pinboard motif | Paper printed with pinboard motif |
| Photogravure included | Yes | No | No |
| Number of copies made | 40 | 20 | 190 |
| Subscriber price | $4,400 | $1,400 | $875 |
| Retail price | $5,500 | $1,750 | $1,250 |
ABOUT THE ARION PRESS: Described as an “irreplaceable cultural treasure” by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Arion Press is one of the last complete, fully-integrated hot type foundry, letterpress workshop, and book binderies in the United States and one of very few in the world.
ABOUT STANISLAV SHVABRIN: Stanislav Shvabrin is Associate Professor of Russian and Russian Program Director at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This is his second project with the press, having provided the transliteration for Arion’s 2018 edition of Alexander Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin, in Nabokov’s translation.
ABOUT WILLIAM KENTRIDGE: William Kentridge directed and designed a visually dazzling 2010 Metropolitan Opera production of Dmitri Shostakovich’s adaptation of The Nose. This is his second project with the press, following The Lulu Plays, published in tandem with his 2015 production of the Alban Berg opera, Lulu, also for the Met.
Product photos
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*Final products may vary from images shown