The Prophet Armed 1879 - 1921; The Prophet Unarmed 1921 - 1929; The Prophet Outcast 1929 - 1940 
 
Isaac Deutscher. 
 
Oxford University Press: 1954, 1959, & 1963. First edition. Hardcovers in jackets. Octavo. Some shelfwear, tears along the edges, and pen marks on the jackets. (The worst is volume one's cover, as seen above.) Two of the jackets are clipped. Some stains and dots on the edges of the text blocks. 528, 490, & 543 pages to volumes one, two, & three, respectively. Books are very good except for volume two, which is near fine, and the jackets are very good except for volume one, which is good. 
 
The classic biography of the brilliant strategist and voice of the Russian Revolution who left to history the possibility of a communism wherein Stalin was the road not taken. 
 
""There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.'"