Shakespeare, William. Selected Works (Izbrannye proizvedeniya), 1939. In Russian.

Вильям Шекспир.
Избранные произведения.
Редакция, вступительная статья и комментарий А. А. Смирнова. Титульный лист и заставки М. Кирнарского.
Ленинград: Художественная литература, 1939.
XVI, 384, [4] с., портр. Увеличенный формат. Тираж 35,000 экз. Твердый переплет.
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William Shakespeare.
Selected Works (Izbrannye proizvedeniya).
Edited with an introductory article and commentary by A. A. Smirnov. Title page and headpieces by M. Kirnarsky.
Leningrad: Khudozhestvennaya Literatura, 1939.
XVI, 384, [4] pp., portr. Enlarged format. Edition of 35,000 copies. Hardcover.

This 1939 Leningrad edition is a quintessential artifact of Soviet Shakespearean scholarship, released on the eve of the Second World War. The text provides a deep dive into the internal logic of the Elizabethan dramatist's legacy, including the arrangement of eleven iconic plays translated by the masters of the Soviet school: Mikhail Lozinsky, Anna Radlova, Tatyana Shchepkina-Kupernik, and Alexandra Kuroshestva. Curated by the eminent philologist Alexander Smirnov, the volume opens with a biographical sketch and concludes with an extensive commentary and mythological dictionary.  A distinctive feature of this edition is the artistic contribution of Mark Kirnarsky, whose refined title page and decorative headpieces lend the book a classic, stately aesthetic. Additionally, the volume includes a specialized essay by M. Dobrosklonsky on the history of Shakespearean illustrators, complemented by a portrait of the Bard and a curated list of illustrations. As a vital primary source, this volume documents the mid-century Soviet effort to standardize and elevate the translation of Western classics for a mass audience. Published in an enlarged format with high production values, this hardcover edition is a significant bibliographical rarity for collectors of world drama, historians of Soviet book design, and researchers of theatrical translation.