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This book, first published in 1977, begins with a close look at the lives of nineteenth century Russian writers, and at the problems of their profession. It then examines their environment in its broader aspects, the Russian empire being considered from the point of view of geography, ethnography, economics, and the impact of individual Tsars on writers and society. A discussion of the main social ‘estates’ follows, and concluding is an analysis in their literary context of the activities of the competing forces of cohesion and disruption in imperial society: the civil service, law courts, police, army, schools, universities, press, censorship, revolutionaries and agitators. This book makes possible a fuller understanding of the works of Pushkin, Dostoyevsky, Chekhov and the other great Russian writers.
Most nineteenth-century Russian writers wrote for their own time and their own country. The assumed in their readers an intimate knowledge of imperial Russian life and familiarity with all sorts of detail with which modern students of their work cannot easily acquaint themselves. This background is supplied in systematic format in this book. It begins with a close look at the lives of writers, and the problems of the profession. It then examines their environment in its broader aspects, the Empire being considered from the point of view of geography, ethnography, economics, and the impact of Tsars on writers and society. Next comes a discussion of the main social "estates" -- peasants, landowning gentry, clergy, and townspeople. Finally, the competing forces of cohesion and disruption in imperial society are analyzed in their literary context -- the activities of civil service, law courts, police, army, schools, universities, press, censorship, revolutionaries, and agitators. -- From publisher's description.
Most nineteenth-century Russian writers wrote for their own time and their own country. The assumed in their readers an intimate knowledge of imperial Russian life and familiarity with all sorts of detail with which modern students of their work cannot easily acquaint themselves. This background is supplied in systematic format in this book. It begins with a close look at the lives of writers, and the problems of the profession. It then examines their environment in its broader aspects, the Empire being considered from the point of view of geography, ethnography, economics, and the impact of Tsars on writers and society. Next comes a discussion of the main social "estates" -- peasants, landowning gentry, clergy, and townspeople. Finally, the competing forces of cohesion and disruption in imperial society are analyzed in their literary context -- the activities of civil service, law courts, police, army, schools, universities, press, censorship, revolutionaries, and agitators. -- From publisher's description.
Revising his doctoral dissertation for Harvard University, Helfant (Russian, Colgate U.) explains how Russian writers of the 19th century not only used gambling as motifs in their work, but were often impacted by it in their own lives; for example Pushkin's huge losses at cards and Dostoevski's at roulette served as impetus for them to write for money, but Tolstoy's ancestral wealth cushioned his losses at cards. In addition to those three, he looks at works by Lermontov, Shakhovskoy, and Begichev. He appends the original texts of all the extended and most of the shorter quotes that are translated from Russian and French in the book. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.
Several stark premises have long prevailed in our approach to Russian history. It was commonly assumed that Russia had always labored under a highly centralized and autocratic imperial state. The responsibility for this lamentable state of affairs was ultimately assigned to the profoundly agrarian character of Russian society. The countryside, home to the overwhelming majority of the nation's population, was considered a harsh world of cruel landowners and ignorant peasants, and a strong hand was required for such a crude society. A number of significant conclusions flowed from this understanding. Deep and abiding social divisions obstructed the evolution of modernity, as experienced "naturally" in other parts of Europe, so there was no Renaissance or Reformation; merely a derivative Enlightenment; and only a distorted capitalism. And since only despotism could contain these volatile social forces, it followed that the 1917 Revolution was an inevitable explosion resulting from these intolerable contradictions—and so too were the blood-soaked realities of the Soviet regime that came after. In short, the sheer immensity of its provincial backwardness could explain almost everything negative about the course of Russian history. This book undermines these preconceptions. Through her close study of the province of Nizhnii Novgorod in the nineteenth century, Catherine Evtuhov demonstrates how nearly everything we thought we knew about the dynamics of Russian society was wrong. Instead of peasants ground down by poverty and ignorance, we find skilled farmers, talented artisans and craftsmen, and enterprising tradespeople. Instead of an exclusively centrally administered state, we discover effective and participatory local government. Instead of pervasive ignorance, we are shown a lively cultural scene and an active middle class. Instead of a defining Russian exceptionalism, we find a world recognizable to any historian of nineteenth-century Europe. Drawing on a wide range of Russian social, environmental, economic, cultural, and intellectual history, and synthesizing it with deep archival research of the Nizhnii Novgorod province, Evtuhov overturns a simplistic view of the Russian past. Rooted in, but going well beyond, provincial affairs, her book challenges us with an entirely new perspective on Russia's historical trajectory.
Leah Goldberg was for most of her life an Israeli writer. She was in her twenties when she immigrated to Palestine (in 1935) and wrote virtually only in Hebrew. She had a great poetic gift, and was the author of some of the most memorable lyrical poetry in modern Hebrew literature. The verses of her last period when, as she felt, words, the stuff of poetry, were deserting her, are perhaps her best. She was also a novelist, a playwright and a critic. Everything she wrote bears the direct impress of her personality.
This collection of essays is the first book to appear on the society tale in nineteenth-century Russian fiction. Written by a team of British and American scholars, the volume is based on a symposium on the society tale held at the University of Bristol in 1996. The essays examine the development of the society tale in Russian fiction, from its beginnings in the 1820s until its subsumption into the realist novel, later in the century. The contributions presented vary in approach from the text or author based study to the generic or the sociological. Power, gender and discourse theory all feature strongly and the volume should be of considerable interest to students and scholars of nineteenth-century Russian literature. There are essays covering Pushkin, Lermontov, Odoevsky and Tolstoi, as well as more minor writers, and more general and theoretical approaches.