Product Description
Russia has a rich, huge, unwieldy cultural tradition. How to grasp it? This classroom reader is designed to respond to that problem. The literary works selected for inclusion in this anthology introduce the core cultural and historic themes of Russia's civilisation. Each text has resonance throughout the arts - in Rublev's icons, Meyerhold's theatre, Mousorgsky's operas, Prokofiev's symphonies, Fokine's choreography and Kandinsky's paintings. This material is supported by introductions, helpful annotations and bibliographie sof resources in all media. The reader is intended for use in courses in Russian literature, culture and civilisation, as well as comparative literature. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

very good compilation
I really like this anthology. This book contains many of the greatest works in Russian literature, from the first stories to be recorded to modern literature. To have Pushkin, Gogol, Kharms, and Tsvetaeva in the same anthology provides a wide range of literary styles and ideas. Also, the translations are some of the best available, and Rzhevsky's analysis is very comprehensive.

Great anthology!
This book provides an deeper insight into Russian literature and it's culture. Mr. Rzhevsky has done this by writing an introduction to each period in the history of Russian literature and showing us how all these works have resonated in Russian culture like music, theatre, cinema etc. So find out why Pushkin's 'Boris Godunov' and Mussorgsky's opera interpretation of it have had a great impact especially in times of moral instability and the collapse of values and historical insecurity of the Gorbachov era or why Nikolai Gogol was misunderstood by many of his readers.
This was exactly the book I was looking for and it is an great introduction to an very interesting culture and its literature.

Excellent for all Literature Lovers!
This book is an excellent compilation of some of the greatest writers Russia has ever produced.On these pages we find literature by Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenyev, Lermentov, Tolstoy, Blok, Babel, Kharms, Bulgakov and many others, as well as a few anonymous authors.There are stories, plays and poems in this anthology, giving the reader a fine selection of the rich variety of literature that Russia had contributed to the world. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in literature (especially, but not limited to Russian literature) and I believe the reader will appreciate this book's true creativity. ... Read more

Product Description
Russian literature arrived late on the European scene.Within several generations, its great novelists had shocked - and then conquered - the world. In this introduction to the rich and vibrant Russian tradition, Caryl Emerson weaves a narrative of recurring themes and fascinations across several centuries. Beginning with traditional Russian narratives (saints' lives, folk tales, epic and rogue narratives), the book moves through literary history chronologically and thematically, juxtaposing literary texts from each major period. Detailed attention is given to canonical writers including Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Bulgakov and Solzhenitsyn, as well as to some current bestsellers from the post-Communist period. Fully accessible to students and readers with no knowledge of Russian, the volume includes a glossary and pronunciation guide of key Russian terms as well as a list of useful secondary works. The book will be of great interest to students of Russian as well as of comparative literature. ... Read more

Product Description
Rather than presenting a conventional chronology of Russian literature, Russian Literature: A Very Short Introduction explores the place and importance in Russian culture of all types of literature. How and when did a Russian national literature come into being? What shaped its creation? How have the Russians regarded their literary language? The book uses the figure of Pushkin--'the Russian Shakespeare'--as a recurring example, as his work influenced every Russian writer who came after him, whether they wrote prose or verse. It furthermore examines why Russian writers are venerated, how they've been interpreted inside Russia and beyond, and the influences of the folk tale tradition, orthodox religion, and the West. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Only for those who already know about Russian Literature
The author of this book is indisputably an expert in Russian Literature -- and it shows in the book. Through her studies and research on various dimensions and periods of Russian Literature, Catriona Kelly has formed her own approach, or her own point of view, about this vast topic, and this book is an introduction to Kelly's approach to Russian Literature, rather than an introduction to Russian Literature per se.

As the previous reviewer wrote, the book is not for people who want to get an initial idea on the Russian Literature. In my case (and I consider myself a "novice" in this subject), it was only after reading another introductory book (as short as this one) that I realized how many important authors and trends and debates were left out of this "very short introduction".

Catriona Kelly is correct to place Pushkin in the center of Russian Literature, but I wish she described in more detail what preceded him, and other, perhaps equally significant authors and poets who followed him.

I would recommend this book only to people who are already familiar with Russian literature and are open to new ways at looking at it.

Not for Novices
If you're looking for a basic introduction to Russian literature, this is probably not a very good place to start. Now, I know the title has the words "Russian Literature" and "Introduction" in itóbut don't let that mislead you. Kelly has purposely set out to avoid the "standard" approach to the topic, which she says tends to take one of three forms: a chronological canon of writers and their works, a chronological trip through literary movements and cultural topics of relevance, or a more personal essay of appreciation. In retrospect, I now recognize that, not having read a great deal of Russian literature, I was looking for a mix of the canon and the literary movements. Instead, what I found in Kelly's work was a confusing attempt to attack the material by using the "Russian Shakespeare" (Aleksander Pushkin) as a framing device.

Through the seven essayish chapters, Pushkin is used as a starting point for the discussion, and then various other writers and themes are introduced in relation to his work or attitudes. As one jacket blurb puts it, this is "an unexpected approach to the subject". And as another blurb puts it, "you may love it, perhaps loathe it, or feel perplexed, but not remain indifferent." Well, mark me down for perplexed. I'm not at all opposed to this approach to the topic, it just doesn't seem particularly well suited as an introduction. It's hard to imagine anyone without a solid grounding in the major Russian writers being able to summon up love or hate for this brief work. It simply assumes too much familiarity on behalf of the reader to be of any utility to the newcomer to Russian literature. So, perhaps I'll return to it in 15 years, after I've had a chance to read some of the vital works, but in the meantime, I'm still trying to learn what those might be. ... Read more

Product Description
An updated edition of this comprehensive narrative history, containing a new chapter on Russian literature of the 1980s and additional bibliographical information. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

a must!
it's great! never use another reference book! ... Read more

Product Description
This first encyclopedia of its kind in English covers ten centuries of Russian literature and includes nearly 1,000 entries by leading scholars.It will be an indispensable guide for students or the general reader."The Handbook is an Eden for browsers... a dependable, illuminating guide."-Robert Taylor, Boston Globe"A comprehensive survey in one volume of one of the world's richest national literatures.The volume includes entries on authors, genres, literary movements, and period studies, together with reviews of notable journals.The lengthiest entries run to more than 6,000 words, the shortest have been kept to a single paragraph, giving the book value both for ready reference and as a collection of history and criticism."-Booklist"The achievement here is grand, the knowledge collected invaluable."-Theoharis C. Theoharis, Christian Science Monitor"A vast and informative compilation.... The magnificent panorama of Russian literature accumulatively unfolds, from its ancient folklore and earliest written texts... to our present century's structuralism, modernism, and socialist realism."-Gordon McVay, Times Higher Education Supplement"For anyone interested in Russian literature, this new Handbook is the single most useful book to own."-J. Thomas Shaw, Slavic and East European Journal"An indispensable source of concise information for all students of literature for years to come."-Ray Parrott, Philological Quarterly ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Near Perfect One Volume Encyclopedia of Russian Literature
If you are a reader of Russian Literature, or simply a lover of encyclopedias, dictionaries and other reference works, "Handbook of Russian Literature" is something you might want in your library. The "Handbook" has nearly one thousand entries, large and small, providing comprehensive coverage, in a single volume, of every aspect of Russian literature during the past ten centuries. A large format book with small print and double columns on each page, the "Handbook" contains entries written by over one hundred leading scholars and ably edited by Victor Terras.

The entries range from one or two lines to several thousand words over several pages. There are biographical entries of Russian authors, little and well known, as well as entries on various genres, historical periods, literary movements, literary journals and periodicals, and critical theories. Each entry includes a bibliography and, in addition, there is a useful general bibliography, broken out by historical periods, at the end of the book. The "Handbook" is, in other words, a perfect reference and entrée into the world of Russian literature. I find myself dipping into this book often, at random, and never fail to learn something new and interesting. I also use it as a valuable source of background reading when I sit down to read a Russian author.

The only shortcomings of the "Handbook" are that its print is very small (allowing the book, of course, to cram an immense amount of information in less than 600 pages) and that it devotes little coverage to authors of roughly the last quarter of the twentieth century, including some of the so-called "dissident" authors who wrote in the years immediately preceding publication (a shortcoming, however, that is excusable because most of the research for the "Handbook" was done in the early 1980s and the book was published in 1985). Also, while the bibliographies are useful for the casual reader, serious research requires reference to more recent sources.

Near Perfect One Volume Encyclopedia of Russian Literature
If you are a reader of Russian Literature, or simply a lover of encyclopedias, dictionaries and other reference works, "Handbook of Russian Literature" is something you might want in your library.The "Handbook" has nearly one thousand entries, large and small, providing comprehensive coverage, in a single volume, of every aspect of Russian literature during the past ten centuries.A large format book with small print and double columns on each page, the "Handbook" contains entries written by over one hundred leading scholars and ably edited by Victor Terras.

The entries range from one or two lines to several thousand words over several pages.There are biographical entries of Russian authors, little and well known, as well as entries on various genres, historical periods, literary movements, literary journals and periodicals, and critical theories.Each entry includes a bibliography and, in addition, there is a useful general bibliography, broken out by historical periods, at the end of the book.The "Handbook" is, in other words, a perfect reference and entrée into the world of Russian literature.I find myself dipping into this book often, at random, and never fail to learn something new and interesting.I also use it as a valuable source of background reading when I sit down to read a Russian author.

The only shortcomings of the "Handbook" are that its print is very small (allowing the book, of course, to cram an immense amount of information in less than 600 pages) and that it devotes little coverage to authors of roughly the last quarter of the twentieth century, including some of the so-called "dissident" authors who wrote in the years immediately preceding publication (a shortcoming, however, that is excusable because most of the research for the "Handbook" was done in the early 1980s and the book was published in 1985).Also, while the bibliographies are useful for the casual reader, serious research requires reference to more recent sources.

A Great Resource
This is a great book for anybody who is studying or likes reading Russian Literature. It has an informative article on practically every Russian writer that you'll need to know about, although a few of the more contemporary ones are omitted.

In addition to providing a thorough biographical sketch for each author, it also mentions the major works of each author and gives critical opinions and brief analyses of many of the works. The major translations available are listed at the end of each entry.

I like reading the sketch on an author before I begin reading his or her work. It provides a great introduction. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Very Disappointing and Offensive
A friend recommended this book so, given the reliability of her past recommendations, I found a copy and began to read.Assuming that Mr. Morson would have the wit and wry humor of a Gogol, Bulgakov, or Dostoyevsky, I kept waiting for the hillarity to began.It never did.Mr. Morson's book reads more like an angry, bitter screed against a Russia he obviously doesn't understand.His observations aren't just beyond the pale, they're cliched and predictable: who would have thought Russians drink?Additionally, as another reviewer has indicated, Mr. Morson doesn't seek to uplift and understand through humor, but to degrade and demean.His not being Eastern Orthodox results in his sounding offensive and ignorant when Russian spirituality or "the Russian mood" is the butt of a joke.I doubt Mr. Morson would so demean his spiritual or religious heritage in this way.

Academic Pretentiousness at its Most Nauseating
I'm sorry to rain on Gary Saul Morson's parade of academic pretentiousness, but I found the book misleading and troubling on many levels. It is a classic example of what has gone terribly wrong with Slavic Studies in our country. Morson, a distinguished teacher and scholar of Russian literature, has a brilliant mind, a fierce wit, and a tin ear for Russian art and history. That is why all of his books--including And Quiet Flows the Vodka (a cliched parody of Mikhail Sholokhov's classic novel, And Quiet Flows the Dawn)--tend to be extremely clever on an intellectual level, yet insensitive to the human concerns of Russian literature and the tragic spirit of Russian history. Professor Morson loves Russian literature because it has provided him with a career worth of material to teach us what Professor Morson thinks about the world; he does not seem to love Russian literature on its own terms, for what it tries to illuminate about Russian history or the human condition.

For his convictions Fyodor Dostoevsky spent 5 years in a Siberian prison camp. Leo Tolstoy was excommunicated from the Russian Orthodox Church. Alexander Solzhenitsyn spent eight years as a political prisoner in the Gulag, and he was eventually exiled from his homeland by the Soviet government. The poet Nikolai Gumilev was executed before a firing squad for his anti-Soviet beliefs. Professor Morson, who is comfortably ensconced as a tenured professor at Northwestern University, has not, to my knowledge, put his professorship (or his life) on the line for his convictions. He probably cannot quite relate to the kind of spiritual courage demonstrated by the Russian artists he mocks. Still, his sense of decency and integrity might have compelled him at least to pay some tribute, however small, to this important dimension of the subject he "covers." Pushkin, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Chekhov all had an ear for the ironic and comedic aspects in Russian life, no less than Professor Morson.But they were also great humanists, who tried to tell the whole truth about the world they described, and who courageously fought for what they believed to be right and just.

It is well-known fact that Professor Morson speaks Russian very poorly, and he relies almost exclusively on English translations for his books and articles about Russian literature. How deeply can he possibly feel the spirit of Russian literature, and how sincerely are his efforts to truly know Russia on its own terms, if he cannot be bothered, after nearly fifty years, to learn the language of his specialty? And now, at the pinnacle of his illustrious career, his first and only book for a general audience is a sly, derisive, self-aggrandizing romp through the painful wounds of Russian history, rather than a sincere effort to try to help Americans discover what is worth knowing about the country and the culture to which he has dedicated his life. Is this what a distinguished career as a professor of Russian Literature at a top American University amounts to?

I hope that Professor Morson will find time to learn Russian, to make his way to the country he claims to know, and to observe with his heart as well as his head what Russian history is all about. Until he does, he will remain a mediocre humorist and a source of continued misunderstanding about one of the world's most fascinating and important cultures.

From Russia: "Wear gloves!"
A scalding repast of Cyrillo-Slavic virtues and vices; a true academecian triumph. This discourse on the ambiguities rages against Tsarist constipation just as poignantly as it does against the unconscious Soviet collectives (or is that Soviet collective unconscious?). A must for all scholars, travellers, and seekers of selfless debasement.

Can You Say "Vanity Press"?
This book (whose actual author is the distinguished Slavist Gary Saul Morson) has a few very funny segments, but there's an awful lot of dross; the more I read, the less I liked it.It makes me sad to think that someone's real book was probably passed over in order to publish this hodgepodge of professorial doodlings.

A vicious attack on academia and Russia's place in it
I too am shocked and outraged that such a book was allowed to appear. Haven't we staffed all our Slavic Departments with ardent Russophiles, elbowing out everybody who babbled something about changing times?I thought we have wiped out once and for all the pernicious critics of things Russian, all those de Custines who, you know, were all homosexuals and probably worse. If I knew who the coward hiding under the pen name of Professor Chudo was, I would have denounced him to the FSK!

The long-suffering Russia received a slap in the face in this book. Invaded so many times, betrayed by her friends, this kind and gentle nation never fought a war (unless invaded), never hurt anyone, and it has always treated old people with respect.Moreover, the book fails to mention that in the eighteenth century, Russia already had great writers and more. Elena Petukhova ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (45)

Book of the Year for me so far...
This book is really a treat: beautifully written, funny and insightful, it's the author's memoir of her life as a student of Russian Lit, with all its pleasures and pitfalls.Along the way she deals with Isaac Babel's truculent relatives, stumbles through Kazakhstan on a field study, shows how the plot ofDostoevsky's "The Possessed" can be lived out as a Stanford graduate student, and comes up with a plausible theory that Tolstoy was actually murdered!The pitchperfect prose is inviting and accessible and the lines between life and literature are blurred in ways that will satisfy anyone who loves books as a part of their lives.

Oh dear.......
I WANTED to love this book. I wanted to read about another person who loves Russia, Russians, Russian literature. I wanted to mentally go with her on her journey.
But I couldn't stomach it.
I'm sorry to say this. The book is just a long expression of intellectual snobbery. I couldn'teven finish it.

Hilarious and quirky account of a life with Russian literature
It's not too often that I read something that reminds me of grad school and makes me laugh out loud at the same time.Elif Batuman has managed the trick, though.Her adventures, and some of them really are adventures, in the world of Russian (and Uzbek) literature are related in a self-deprecating, insightful and really funny way.The chapter on Babel and on her studies in Uzbekistan are the ones that stand out in my mind.Anyone who is part of academia knows that it is a broad fellowship with many members, some of whom are strange and some of whom are just plain nuts.The Babel chapter shows this in a way both funny and sad.The Uzbekistan pieces really give the feeling of coming to terms and trying to study in a place that is completely alien and different from one's previous experiences.That sense of disorientation flows over into her study of Uzbek, which she notes seemed to have been created by Borges.

Definitely worth reading.

A Genuine Original Talent. Really.
I agree with almost every bit of praise heaped on this book. I think the praise may seem excessive, but a writer as good as Elif Batuman is a rare and wonderful discovery. Her observations are witty, original, moving, profound and delightful. Her writing is easy, fluid and enjoyable. I bought this book for my young college going friends, who enjoyed it immensely. Ms. Batuman does this kind of self revelatory, first person memoir writing much better than the usual author of this type, who so often writes for his own favorite reader, himself. I hope some brilliant (if there are any) publishing house has snapped this talented young woman up and signed her on to keep writing. I can't wait for her next book. Also, she got me to start re-reading Chekhov.

Edgy, a bit strange and very funny
A collection of essays on Russian literature that is both funny and learned by an academic who writes very well. Excellent short discussion of Anna Karenina,The Possessed (hence the title although it is also about those who get possessed by Russian literature and by the study of language as language) and Isaac Babel with a side trip to Samarkand which seems to have become one of the least romantic and dreariest places on the old Silk Road.

Her description of academic conferences in ...more A collection of essays on Russian literature that is both funny and learned by an academic who writes very well. Excellent short discussion of Anna Karenina, The Possessed (hence the title although it is also about those who get possessed by Russian literature and by the study of language as language) and Isaac Babel with a side trip to Samarkand which seems to have become one of the least romantic and dreariest places on the old Silk Road.

Her description of academic conferences in St. Petersburg and Berkley are both high and low points of the book. High points because they are funny as hell, low because almost everyone at both places seem ridiculous. The Babel meeting in California is full of absurdities--the Hoover Institution is co-sponsoring it and they would really like to have some three dimensional objects as part of the show--a fake fur hat that looks like something a Russian would wear or a Cossack costume that was probably picked up at a Halloween shop going out of business sale. ... Read more

Product Description
Including examples from Russia's greatest poets, Michael Wachtel draws on three centuries of verse, from the beginnings of secular literature in the eighteenth century to the present day. The first part of his book is devoted to concepts such as versification, poetic language and tradition. In the second part he examines the ode, the elegy, love poetry, nature poetry and patriotic verse. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Amazing
The literature of Old Russia includes THE CAMPAIGN OF IGOR, a purely literary work using the methods of oral poetry.It is cast in the Russo-Slavonic literary language of the twelfth century.Avvakum, a schismatic of the Russian Orthodox Church, circa 1666-67, (burned at the stake in 1682), was the first person to use colloquial Russian for a literary purpose.After 1569 White Russia, Galicia, and Ukraine came under Polish rule.Original novel-writing began in the time of Peter during the first half of the eighteenth century.No novel was printed in Russia before 1750. The first original novel was published in 1763.In that era the new French-bred literature was confined to the upper classes.French classical standards were adopted.The leaders were four men, Kantemir, Trediakovsky, Lomonosov, and Sumarokov.The highest form of literary art was poetry, the epic.Odes were important, also.The greatest poet of the century was Derzhavin.His work was lyric.He conveyed light and color.The first Russian drama, Sumarokov's tragedy KHOREV, was performed in front of Empress Elizabeth in 1749.The most remarkable playwright was Fonvizin.Tragedy relied on French models and was stilted.Comedy was more inventive.

Prose writing was promoted by the Empress Catherine.Satirical journals were founded.The political shift to reaction following the French Revolution resulted in the closing of a journal publishing serious social satire on the subject of serfdom.The editor, Novikov, proceeded to start a publishing company, 1775-1789, and formed the Russian reading public.Karamzin reformed Russian literary language.It was Europeanized and became the language of Pushkin.Karamzin wrote THE HISTORY OF THE RUSSIAN STATE, 1818.The most famous of his stories of the Russian monarchs is that of Boris Godunov.The style of the history is rhetorical.At the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth century fable writing became a craze.Krylov's FABLES are contained in nine volumes.Narezhny's novel, A RUSSIAN GIL BLAS, appeared in 1814.After 1820 poetry monopolized the market.Byron was an influence.The repression of the Decembrist Revolt was a blow to the intellectual elite of the gentry.After 1829 novels in the manner of Scott became popular.

In 1837 Pushkin died in a duel.In 1824 he had been expelled from the Civil Service and made to live on his mother's estate.Forced seclusion made him productive.Later he was granted a special pardon.He fell in love with Natalie Goncharova and married in 1831.The couple ended up in St. Petersburg attending court balls.The author seesaws between THE STONE GUEST and THE BRONZE HORSEMAN as being Pushkin's supreme achievement.At the time of Pushkin's death, Gogol was more esteemed.Dostoyevsky and Turgenev were among those artists laying the foundation for the Pushkin cult, (as the artist terms it).One of the chapters in the book is entitled, 'The Age of Gogol'.The recognition of Tyutchev as a great poet was belated.Lermontov's poetic fame burst on the scene with a poem on the death of Pushkin.(In 1841 he was killed in a duel.)His THE DEMON was a source of inspiration to the modern poets, Blok and Pasternak.A HERO OF OUR TIMES is of greater importance than his poetry.Turgenev began his career writing verse, 1838 to 1845.His poetry is not comparable to his stories.In drama of the thirties and forties the comedies of Gogol stood alone.The summit of his career was his novel, DEAD SOULS.Gogol's imaginative work is marellous, unexpected.His prose is intense, saturated; he has verbal expressiveness.

The realistic novel dominated Russian literature from 1845 to 1905.In 1844-45 Dostoyevsky wrote POOR FOLK. Good notices and interest in it were received from Belinsky and Nekrasov.In 1849 Dostoyevsky was taken off to Siberia.He evolved a new style by the fusion of extremes.In 1859 Goncharov published OBLOMOV.Turgenev's mother, a heiress, was a domestic tyrant.In 1845 he fell out with his mother.She disapproved of his infatuation with Pauline Viardot.A SPORTSMAN'S SKETCHESappeared in book form in 1852.After FATHERS AND SONS, 1862, he abandoned Russia.SMOKE and VIRGIN SOIL emphasized his estrangement from living Russia.Of the poets, Fet was the great love poet and Nekrasov a great satirist.

Tolstoy was always a class-conscious nobleman.After the Crimean war he mixed with the literary world.He had an insatiable quest for moral stability.The married happiness of Tolstoy, taking place during the first fifteen years of marriage, is expressed in WAR AND PEACE.Writing was a struggle to master reality.WAR AND PEACE andANNA KARENINA have the appearance of real life.Dostoyevsky brought out CRIME AND PUNISHMENT in 1866 and THE GAMBLER in 1867.THE POSSESSED, 1873, was a success.The high water mark for Dostoyevsky was THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV, 1880.Tolstoy was a puritan and Dostoyevsky a symbolist.Leontiev's work, ANALYSIS, STYLE, AND ATMOSPHERE IN THE NOVELS OF COUNT L.N. TOLSTOY is a masterpiece of Russian criticism.Chekhov's first play, IVANOV, was produced in 1887.In 1895 he wrote THE SEAGULL.That play along with UNCLE VANYA, THE THREE SISTERS, and THE CHERRY ORCHARD was successfully produced by the Art Theater in Moscow, Stanislavsky.The author finds the stories 'In the Ravine' and 'My Life' the masterpieces of Chekhov's body of work.

The book is both charming and comprehensive.I have barely touched this book's expansive and learned treatment of its subject matter.

A classic
Prince Mirsky's good old book has in fact not been excelled by any other work concerning Russian literature from its beginnings to 1900. It is packed with information, and still very comprehensive and intriguing indeed in its analyses and anecdotes.

It also provides some entertaining lingual gems - the writer Derzhavin's prose, for example, is by Mirsky characterised as 'virile', and his philosophy as 'manfully thankful for the joys of ephemeral life', while the influent literary criticist Belinsky's style is condemned as 'execrable lingo'.

Anyone interested in Russian literature should read this book. As a reference book it serves excellently.

A Classic History of Classic Literature
A compilation of Mirsky's "A History of Russian Literature from the Earliest Times to the Death of Dostoyevsky" combined with the first two chapters of his "Contemporary Russian Literature, 1881-1925." Mirsky was, indeed, a contemporary historian of some of the greatest writers of fiction. Tolstoy, Doestoyevsky, Gogol, Chekhov and Turgenev are explored within the historical and physical framework in which they lived.

This books is a classic exploration of Russian Literature that has had a great deal of impact on the teaching and understanding of Russian Literature.For example, the leading translators of Russian Literature, Pevear and Volokhonsky, make use of Mirsky's history. Their translation of Chekhov stories even recommends Mirsky's section on Checkhov. Their recommendation is, of course, of much greater import than mine.

Mirsky created a classic historical work of literature. It is one of the guides you need to understand some of the greatest literature of all time. ... Read more

Product Description
Clarence Brown's marvelous collection introduces readers to the most resonant voices of twentieth-century Russia. It includes stories by Chekhov, Gorky, Bunin, Zamyatin, Babel, Nabokov, Solzhenitsyn, and Voinovich; excerpts from Andrei Bely's Petersburg, Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita, Boris Pasternak's Dr. Zhivago, and Sasha Solokov's A School for Fools; the complete text of Yuri Olesha's 1927 masterpiece Envy; and poetry by Alexander Blok, Anna Akhmatova, and Osip Mandelstam.

Edited by Clarence Brown. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

How it was Done in Russia
I bought this book for a course in Russian short fiction, and two years later I still find myself coming back to it. There are many great examples of Soviet and pre-Soviet writing in this anthology, the complete text of Olesha's novella "Envy", as well as some excerpts from longer works like "The Master and Margarita" and "Dr. Zhivago".

True to the Russian literary tradition, most of the pieces occupy a bizarre liminal space between incredibly funny and incredibly disturbing. The author I'm most grateful for having been introduced to through this volume is Danill Kharms, an absurdist writer from the early Soviet era. His "Anecdotes about Pushkin's Life" mocks the kind of hero worship prevelant in the literary world by presenting a series of ridiculous one-paragraph stories that make little to no sense, but are quite funny.

Other highlights in this book include Zamayatin's (authour of "We") "The Cave", Babel's "My First Goose", Platonov's "The Potudan River", Zoshchenko's bureaucratic allegory "Bees and People", Gorky's "Recollections of Leo Tolstoy", and Shalamov's Gulag horror story "Lend Lease".

This book is well worth getting, and you'll find yourself returning to it over and over again, each time finding something new.

Contents listing
The other review (by the reader from New Orleans) appears to refer to the 19th-century volume, not to this the 20th-century volume. Here's the contents list for THIS volume, copied-and-pasted from elsewhere...

"Alyosha the Pot", Leo Tolstoy
"The Bishop", Anton Chekhov
"Recollections of Leo Tolstoy", Maxim Gorky
"Light Breathing", Ivan Bunin
"Time", Nadezhda Teffi
"A Girl Was Singing" "The Stranger", Alexander Blok
from "Petersburg", Andrei Bely
"The Cave", Evgeni Zamyatin
"Nikolai", Velimir Khlebnikov
"Three Things in this World He Loved" "We're No Good at Saying Good-bye" "Dante" "When a Man Dies", "Courage", Anna Akhmatova
"The Potudan River", Andrei Platonov
"Varykino" "Hamlet" "March", Boris Pasternak
"Theodosia" "The Admiralty" "The Thread of Gold Cordial Flowed" "Leningrad" "O Lord, Help Me to Live
Through this Night" "The Last Supper", Osip Mandelstam
from "The Master and Margarita", Mikhail Bulgakov
"My First Goose" "How It was Done in Odessa" My First Fee", Isaac Babel
"Bees and People" from "Before Sunrise", Mikhail Zoshchenko
"Envy", Yuri Olesha
"The Return of Chorb" "The Visit to the Museum", Vladimir Nabokov
"A May Night" "Last Letter", Nadezhda Mandelstam
"Anecdotes About Pushkin's Life" "The Connection", Daniil Kharms
"Prosthetic Appliances" "A Child's Drawings" "Lend-Lease", Varlam Shalamov
"Matryona's Home", Alexander Solzhenitsyn
"Pkhentz", Andrei Sinyavsky
"Adam and Eve", Yuri Kazakov
from "Faithful Ruslan", Georgi Vladimov
"A Circle of Friends", Vladimir Voinovich
from "A School for Fools", Sasha Sokolov ... Read more

Product Description
This original anthology of short stories covers two centuries of Russian literary tradition, from the early nineteenth century to the collapse of the Soviet Union and beyond, and includes not only well-known classics but also modern masterpieces—many of them previously censored. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Worthwhile as an Introduction, though the Great Russian Stories Left Out Would Fill Volumes More
This book was published in 2005 and contained 41 short stories by 26 writers. The works were published originally between 1834 and 1998. More than two-thirds of the translations in the collection were produced wholly or in part by the editor, Robert Chandler.

From the first half of the 19th century, there were Pushkin, Lermontov and Gogol; from the latter half, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Leskov and Chekhov. Omitted were Vsevolod Garshin and the humor of Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin and Kozma Prutkov.

From the first half of the 20th century, major writers included Bunin, Zamyatin, Bulgakov, Babel and Platonov, together with the much-loved Zoshchenko. Omitted were writers like Gorky, Pasternak, Grossman and Nabokov, whose short stories the editor considered inferior to their work in other genres, as well as anything by Valery Bryusov or Alexander Kuprin. Also omitted was any writer whose work could be both creative and opposed to capitalism, such as Boris Lavrenyov. The 1920s and 30s were the most frequently represented period in the collection, with nearly half of the pieces written and/or published during this time.

From the second half of the 20th century, the anthology included short stories by Shalamov, Solzhenitsyn, Shukshin, Eppel, Dovlatov and Buida. Representation of writing after about 1965 was maybe the thinnest part of the collection, with only four works. For this period, something might've been chosen from among a list of short stories by writers including, for example, Vassili Belov or Vladimir Tendryakov (1960s and 70s), Boris Ekimov, Victor Erofeev, Vitaly Moskalenko, Nikolai Shmelyov, Leonid Shorokhov, Vladimir Sorokin, Ludmila Petrushevskaya, Dina Rubina, Galina Shcherbakova, Tatiana Tolstaya, Ludmila Ulitskaya or Svetlana Vasilenko (1980s and after), and Victor Pelevin or Alexander Terekhov (1990s and after).

From the 1950s, writers like Yuri Kazakov, Yuri Nagibin and Vera Panova were omitted. For the 20th century as a whole, works of satirical, surreal and/or other humor were of course included (Zoshchenko, Kharms, Dovlatov), but much other fine social or political humor was left out, by writers such as Vlasy Doroshevitch, Pantaleimon Romanov, Ilf and Petrov, Vladimir Polyakov, Vladimir Voinovich, Dmitri Prigov and Vladimir Kuzemko.

In place of what was omitted, the collection appeared to favor writing by authors from the first half of the 20th century whose work has gained increasing attention and republication within recent decades. These included Platonov (claimed by some including Chandler to be the most important Russian prose writer of the last century), the absurdist Kharms, Leonid Dobychin (some of whose writing has been likened to Dubliners) and Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky. Some space was also devoted to a relatively small number of early authors who were women: Lidiya Zinovyeva-Annibal, Teffi and Vera Inber. Another point of interest was that lesser-known pieces were included for Turgenev, Chekhov, Solzhenitsyn and one of Bunin's.

In all cases, the editor's choices were made with the aim of conveying the vitality, linguistic creativity and emotional depth of the Russian short story, with the selections being ones he'd been able to read many times with increasing enjoyment. It must've been painful indeed to select from among the many suitable works by Chekhov, Babel and Shalamov, let alone the others. Only one tale by Chekhov was included, despite his great influence on the short story. For Babel, all the pieces included were from his cycle on the Russian-Polish war, with nothing chosen from among his tales on youthful experience or Jewish characters in Odessa.

The work in the collection that succeeded best in fulfilling the editor's aim, for this reader, was Leskov's "The Steel Flea" (1881), called his most brilliant short story, in which an admiring czar and his xenophobic adviser traveled to England on a study tour. It combined fascinating developments poking fun at native attitudes toward the West, among other things, with incredible language to make you laugh out loud ("Where's the key to the flea?" "How could he be taken away from them without his grasp port"). Another was "Bobok" by Dostoevsky, in which a narrator overheard conversations in a cemetery that showed humans could be just as irreligious in death as in life.

From the 20th century, there was a story from A Country Doctor's Notebook by Bulgakov in which the young narrator was thrown into a medical emergency, described with astonishing realism. Platonov's "The Return," which showed with great sensitivity a soldier's return to his family. And "The Officer's Belt" by Dovlatov, a tall tale set in late Soviet times, which made me want to read more of his work especially. The piece by Kharms -- called his longest work for adults -- combined surreal humor with an alienated narrator and a corpse that wouldn't lie still, though it was far from being his most grotesque tale. And there was a story by Inber containing close, sympathetic observation of the behavior of children. Some of the other works, by Zamyatin and Dobychin, were too subtle for this reader.

Anthologies of similar size or larger include A Treasury of Russian Literature (1943), A Treasury of Great Russian Short Stories (1944), Russian Literature since the Revolution (1948), Great Russian Short Stories (1959), The Portable Twentieth Century Russian Reader (1985, revised 1993), The Portable Nineteenth Century Russian Reader (1993) and An Anthology of Russian Literature from Earliest Writings to Modern Fiction (1997).

Among the many smaller general surveys are Anthology of Russian Literature in the Soviet Period from Gorki to Pasternak (1960) and The Penguin Book of Russian Short Stories (1981).

Small surveys focused mainly on contemporary prose include The Wild Beach and Other Stories (1992), Dissonant Voices: The New Russian Fiction (1991), The Penguin Book of New Russian Writing (1995), Present Imperfect: Stories by Russian Women (1996), Rasskazy: New Fiction from a New Russia (2009), Life Stories: Original Works by Russian Writers (2009) and most of the issues of GLAS magazine (1991 to the present).

A delightfully diverse selection
Anthologies are always a challenge to put together. This collection is a stellar selection of some of the best of Russion Short stories from Pushkin to the post Soviet era.
I am putting this book in a special place in my library with more than half of them marked for frequent re-reading. For a sampling of the cream of Russian writing, you cannot do better than this.

best intro to russian authors
This book is for those who would like an overview of the russian short stories. And it has all the great writers. So if you are looking for an advanced anthology this is not the right one.

Best anthology of Russian stories since 1990
I can't say enough about Russian Short Stories from Pushkin to Buida. To this reader, in whom concentrated knowledge in a few areas trumps familiarity with the whole literature, it is perhaps the best collection of stories translated from Russian since Goscilo and Lindsey's Glasnost anthology, and it's a better general introduction because of its chronological sweep.

Robert Chandler, editor as well as translator of some of the stories, has demonstrated uncommon skill and diligence in choosing and/or translating these works. Moreover, his introductions are at least as good as the pieces themselves!

The lineup includes several exciting writers I hadn't encountered previously, including Teffi, Annibal, Shukshin, Eppel, and Buida. Bunin I've known only peripherally--"The Gentleman from San Francisco" is a marvelous translation from D. H. Lawrence and Leonard Wolff. Chandler's own translations of Bunin, Pushkin, Tolstoy, and others are fresh and interesting, whether heart-rending as in Aksyonov's "God Sees the Truth and Waits," or hilarious as in his outstanding renditions of Babel's "Salt" and Kharms'"The Old Woman." The humor in these latter two arises from the authentic voices he has captured, probably the hardest task for a translator.

I recommend this work for scholars and novices, and especially as a text for university courses focusing on literature in translation. ... Read more

Product Description
This is the first synthesizing study of Russian writing about the Caucasus during the nineteenth-century age of empire-building. It covers major writers including Pushkin, Tolstoy and Lermontov, but also introduces material from travelogues, oriental studies, ethnography, memoirs, and the utterances of tsarist officials and military commanders. Setting these writings and the responses of the Russian readership in historical and cultural context, Susan Layton examines ways that literature underwrote imperialism. But her study also reveals the tensions between the Russian state's ideology of a European mission to civilize the Caucasian Muslim mountaineers, and romantic perceptions of those peoples as noble primitives whose extermination was no cause for celebration. ... Read more

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The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. ... Read more

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An anthology of 19th-century Russian literature containing extracts of poetry, prose and drama including lyric poems by Pushkin, Lermontov and Tyutchev; short stories by Gogol, Turgenev, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy; and passages from Herzen's memoirs and Chekhov's plays. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Good compiliation
I'm not an expert on Russian literature so I can't comment on if this is better than other books like it. It does seem to be a good introduction - maybe a little advanced but I am enjoying it.

One of the great periods of world literature- anthologized
Nineteenth century Russia Literature is one of the great Literatures of Mankind. Consider 'War and Peace' and 'Karamozov' Tolstoy and Dostoevsky alone, two of the giants. But also in that century Pushkin, Gogol, Lermontov, Turgenev, Chekhov other very major writers.
In this anthology there are also includedHerzen,Solovoyev, Saltykov- Schedrin, Griboyedov, Goncharov, Tyutchev, and others.
The Tolstoy is 'Ivan Ilyich' and the Dostoevsky 'The Grand Inquisitor' .
There are clearly written introductions to each of the works.
This a an overabundantly rich anthology,an overabundance and richness which reflects the character of nineteenth century Russian Literature as a whole.

Re: Contents listing below by stonechat
I disagree with stonechat's correction of the review by the New Orleans reader. I am holding this title in my hand and the contents listed by stonechat are incorrect ... maybe stonechat listed the contents of the Portable Twentieth Century Russian Reader? I dunno.. just trying to be helpful :)

everything important right here!
This anthology is an excellent reader's companion to any modern Russian work--be it Nabokov's Pnin or Tolstoy's War and Peace.Not only does it provide excellent autobiographical coverage on all the major Russianauthors of the period, but it has characteristic passages from works toobig to be included that allow the dilettante and the serious reader aliketo investigate Russian literature in as much depth as suits each.The bookis comparable to the Norton's Anthology of English Literature, but on asmaller scale and less heavily footnoted.Authors covered include ofcourse Pushkin, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, and Gorky, but alsoGriboyedov, Lermontov, Gogol, Aksakov, Tyutchev, Karolina Pavlova,Goncharov, Turgenev, Herzen, Prutkov, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Solovyov and someRussian Folk Proverbs.A rare treat it provides is the chance to read someofDostoyevsky's political non-fiction, Tolstoy's literary criticism, andeleven Pushkin poems.Plot summaries and brief literary analyses areincluded with the biographical information.Very readable and complete,though some translations are written in akwardly formal language (a flawubiquitous in Russian translations that does not detract from the diversityof selections or the beauty of included prose) ... Read more

Product Description
This work presents a survey of Russian literature from its beginnings in the 11th century to modern times. Victor Terras argues that Russian literature has reflected, defined, and shaped the nation's beliefs and goals, and he sets his survey against a background of social and political developments and religious and philosophic thought. Terras traces a rich literary heritage that encompasses Russian folklore of the 11th and 13th centuries, medieval literature that in style and substance drew on the Byzantine tradition and literature of the 17th and 18th centuries, when Russia passed through a succession of literary schools - neoclassicism, sentimentalism, romanticism, and realism - imported from the West. Terras then moves on to the masterful realist fiction of Turgenev, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoi during the second half of the 19th century, showing how it was a catalyst for the social and cultural advances following the reforms of Alexander II. In discussing the period preceding the revolution of 1917. Terras links the literary movements with parallel developments in the theatre, music and the visual arts, explaining that these all placed Russia in the forefront of European modernism.Terras divides Russian literature after the revolution into emigre and Soviet writing, and he demonstrates how the latter acted as a propaganda tool of the Communist party. He concludes his survey with the dissident movement that followed Stalin's death, arguing that the movement again made literature a leader in the struggle for freedom of thought, genuine relevance, and communion with Western culture. ... Read more

Product Description
The author’s observations on the great nineteenth-century Russian writers-Chekhov, Dostoevsky, Gogol, Gorky, Tolstoy, and Turgenev. “This volume... never once fails to instruct and stimulate. This is a great Russian talking of great Russians” (Anthony Burgess). Edited and with an Introduction by Fredson Bowers; illustrations. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (19)

Rare book found
Excellent service- book was rare but arrived promptly and in the condition specified: many thanks!

not just another "great writer"
Nabokov's ideas about literature will strike many readers as strange--his near obsession with seemingly trivial points of set description, his lack of interest in Great Ideas or in "character" in the sense of a window into human nature. Such readers would likely describe Nabokov's opinions (and his own artistic creations)as "disembodied," "narrow," "cold," "sanitary." These readers would be making a crucial error, selling both a brilliant artist and themselves short.

Narrative art generally operates as follows: an author presupposes the human world as a place driven by desire, a place defined by the striving for those things (white whale, justice for a father's fratricidal demise, "God") as grant freedom from pain and perhaps even transcendent joy. Drama unfolds as chracters fight over these things, great moral questions get asked (what are one's obligations to others as we strive, Does God care about us and our plans) and we feel kindred ecstacy and despair as characters near their objects or falter. To most, this is literature-- a chronicle of movement up and down a scale of nearness or distance from some highly charged, desired object. Indeed, to most, this is "reality," consciousness itself.

Nabokov has a very different idea. What Nabokov understands, what is central to his conception of literature (and of consciousness), is thatthose objects accepted by other writers as objectively powerful things capable (however complex their identities might otherwise be) of bestowing or denying happiness, have that power only because an indvidual consciousness gives it to them. While Humbert Humbert adores Lolita, homosexual chess partner Gaston Godin is so absolutely immune to her charms that he never even realizes she's one person (he "sees" multiple Humbert "daughters"). Charlotte adores dreadful Humbert because, contrary to what we know him to be, a gallant, handsome continental is the image she makes of him. In such a world, Nabokov's world, tragedy, the final, fatal estrangement from some ultimately longed-for object, has no place: What's a fall from grace when grace was never more than a dream of the mind? Suffice it to say, the "normal" critical values of literature become equally pointless. What DOES matter in this transmorgified world is style and structure, the artistry (the Samsa house, the layer cake in Madame Bovary) with which dreamy things, in art as well as in life, are woven. What seems shallow about Nabokov, is in fact far "deeper" and subtle than anything found in such alledgely "great souled" writers as Dostoevsky, Faulkner, Thomas Mann, etc. In fact, it's no exaggeration to say that Nabokov's art begins at a point higher than than where these writers' art, at its highest, finishes.

The smell of sawdust
This is a writer's book. It is not (really) for students of literature. It has almost nothing in the way of meaning or 'higher' criticism. Instead, it's a working writer's careful view of the plot and style of landmark novels. That the writer is Nabokov makes the view sharper, critical and a bit more malign. So much the better.This is the view from the workshop where the boards are cut and planed. The smell of sawdust is in the air. If you are involved in the cabinetry that is fiction, you should spend some time here.

I'm not so enthusiastic about his judgment of Austen and Dickens, but then again I'm not so enthusiastic about my enthusiasms. There's a genius at work here and it's worth looking

Lynn Hoffman, author of bang BANG: A Novel

Amazon messed up
Amazon has mistakenly crosslinked this book with another, lectures on non-Russian literature, as being another edition of that book.

Solid example of Nabokov's literary perspective
Some time back, I reviewed "Crime and Punishment" for Amazon.One of the commentators on my review suggested that I take a look at Vladimir Nabokov's critical analysis of Dostoevsky. So, via Amazon, I purchased Vladimir Nabokov's book, "Lectures in Literature."As luck would have it, this was not the volume covering Dostoevsky! However, I did take a look anyhow, my curiosity piqued by the comment on my review.The end result? A greater appreciation for Nabokov--and also a sense that I'm not apt to invest a great deal of time reading other of his literary analysis.

The essays in this book represent lectures that he gave at Wellesley College and Cornell University.The introductory comments note that (Page ix): "The fact cannot and need not be disguised that the texts for these essays represent Vladimir Nabokov's written-out notes for delivery as classroom lectures and that they cannot be recognized as a finished literary work. . . ."John Updike's Introduction also provides some context for this work. He notes that Nabokov's lectures provide (Page xxv): ". . .a dazzling demonstration, for those lucky Cornell students in the remote, clean-cut fifties, of the irresistible artistic sensibility." He also notes, in Nabokov's words, the truth of novels, that (Pages xxv-xxvi): ". . .great novels are great fairy tales--and the novels in this series are supreme fairy tales. . . ." Nabokov himself points out that a writer can be considered as (a) a storyteller, (b) a teacher, and (c) an enchanter (Page 5). And, above all, he values style and structure in authors' creations.

Maybe a few examples will illustrate his critical approach.First, Jane Austen's "Mansfield Park."Let me confess. . . . I'm not particularly excited about Jane Austen's work. However, Nabokov is very pleased with her work.Given his emphasis on style and structure, he details how well she constructs this work. For instance, at one point, the characters, among whom there are a variety of tensions to begin with, select a play to perform. The decision as to which of the characters in Austen's story would play which characters in the play is well discussed by Nabokov. The play itself raises questions--it was, in fact, an actual play that scandalized some of the characters in the novel.And it exacerbated pre-existing tensions among the characters.All in all, Nabokov makes a great case that Austen's structure of this segment of the novel was well done indeed. And, in terms of style, he says of Austen that (Page 59) "she handles it with perfection."As noted, I am not much excited by Austen's works, but Nabokov sure convinced me that she was a terrific technical writer, who wed her genius to technique and style and structure to create something special.

Briefly, I would also note that his examination of Robert Louis Stevenson's "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" leaves him cold.He does not think that it holds together well and that the dichotomy of the characters works well.

Finally, Kafka's "Metamorphosis," a story I read several decades ago.I recall the sense of despair I felt reading about the travails of Gregor Samsa--and a sense that, despite the awful/offal nature of the work that there was something important here.Nabokov is very positive about this piece. Much of this lecture is a simple description of the work, scene by scene, and Nabokov spennds some time noting how Kafka's work is so much better than Stevenson's work discussed above. Samsa's unexplained transformation into a beetle is the event that triggers this story. Nabokov notes how this tragedy has positive elements--a family finally getting its act together even as it abandons Gregor--and illustrates Kafka's style.Of the latter, Nabokov says (Page 283): "You will mark Kafka's style. Its clarity, its precise and formal intonation in such striking contrast to the nightmare matter of his story."

He concludes this set of lectures by congratulating his students on their work--and making a few final points.He concludes (Pages 381-382): "I have tried to teach you to read books for the sake of their form, their visions, their art. I have tried to teach you to feel a shiver of artistic satisfaction, to share not the emotion of the people in the book but the emotions of its author--the joys and difficulties of creation."

I admire his emphasis on style and structure, but I also think there is an almost sanitary quality about some of his observations. Austen? I have found it difficult over decades to get any purchase on her works. Her style and structure doesn't make up for what I feel as an overly mannered style (I expect to get hammered for saying that!). Does one really need to know about her knowledge of a particular play to appreciate (or not appreciate) her novel?I don't know.I'm a political scientist--not a literary critic.Nonetheless, this is an exciting book, as one learns how a literary critic from one critical perspective examining a series of works--Austen, Dickens, Flaubert, Stevenson, Proust, Kafka, and Joyce. If interested in Nabokov's critical perspective, this is a good starting point!
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