David Borovsky’s work made for “The Precipice” became the artist’s first experience of book design on such a great scale: not only did he create half-page and full-page illustrations, but he also designed the dust jacket, the half-titles — special pages at the beginning of each part — and the headpieces. He used different techniques: part of the illustrations was performed in ink, while the others were drawn with a charcoal pencil and a sauce-crayon — a type of chalk pastel, which provides a flat black, moss green or ocean-gray tone. In order to best convey the spirit of the novel, Borovsky meticulously studied all the particularities of the mid-19th century. His son, Alexander Borovsky, later wrote that his father“managed to set the right emotional tone, full of some kind of acceptance <…> The illustrations were liked by both readers and critics. Vera’s image from the dust jacket was numerously reprinted, for it was considered part of a new fresh angle on the Russian classical literature.”

 
In total, the museum collection includes 46 illustrations made by David Borovsky for “The Precipice”, which depict such key characters as sisters Marfa and Vera, their grandmother Tatyana Markovna, as well as Vera’s beloved Mark Volokhov.