 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Trade in Brief Lives: Alexander Pushkin for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Plus, get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Authors
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.
Product Description
Review
'Chandler, a superb translator from the Russian, rises to the challenge as he celebrates the writing while dodging the ''crushing weight of reverence''. He gives a swift but sensitive account of Pushkin's eventful life: part-African ancestry, romance, rebellion, exile, travel, death in that absurd duel in 1837. And, via pithy summary and apt quotation, we glimpse the works - such as Boris Godunov, Eugene Onegin and The Queen of Spades that fixed his role as the national icon claimed by Russians of all stripes.' --The Independent
'This superb, short (152 pages) book is a masterwork. Chandler dares to wrestle with the icon that is Pushkin and delivers a digestible, readable biography that is as mindful of the mountains of Pushkinian research as it is of the knowledge and interest level of the general reader. --Russian Life Magazine
'[...an] engaging and enjoyable "brief life" of Russia's greatest, most quintessential poet.' --Times Literary Supplement
'This superb, short (152 pages) book is a masterwork. Chandler dares to wrestle with the icon that is Pushkin and delivers a digestible, readable biography that is as mindful of the mountains of Pushkinian research as it is of the knowledge and interest level of the general reader. --Russian Life Magazine
'[...an] engaging and enjoyable "brief life" of Russia's greatest, most quintessential poet.' --Times Literary Supplement
Product Description
Robert Chandler's exquisite biography examines Pushkin as writer, lover and public figure. It explores his relationship to politics and provides a fascinating glimpse of the turbulent history Pushkin lived through. The publication of this biography coincides with a new Hesperus translation of Pushkin's 'The Tales of Belkin', and acts as a succinct and sympathetic guide to anybody trying to understand Russia's most celebrated literary figure - and, indeed, Russia itself.
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Robert Chandler has published a brief, 100 page, biography of Pushkin. It is a long time since I read anything so entrancing. Chandler manages to say all the most important things. He foregrounds arresting details, provides a sensitive analysis of the extremely complex matter of Pushkin's relationship with the authorities, and he has thoughtful things to say about Pushkin's posthumous life in the Russian consciousness. He brings out more clearly than anyone the extent to which Pushkin's greatness is linked to the delicacy of his give-and-take with the Russian language. This, of course, is something especially difficult to bring out in translation; that it is possible at all is thanks to the delicacy of Chandler's own, almost free verse translations of passages from Pushkin's lyric poetry, and to the brilliance of Stanley Mitchell's recent translation of "Eugene Onegin", from which Chandler provides substantial quotes. If you have English friends who are curious about why Russians make such a to-do over their Pushkin, here is a book to recommend to them. This book is worthy of the unimitable (and sadly almost unkown in the West in his non-academic quality) Mikhail Gasparov - seriously. It lacks the containing framework of Gasparov's academicism but, in this case, this is a gain rather than a loss. I am at a loss for words.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Robert Chandler's little book about Russia's greatest writer is a real gem, and his sensitive and well-rounded portrait of the man transcends the sometimes banal genre of a brief "life and works". It is also quite moving. A wonderful bonus comes in the form of various translations, by Chandler himself and Antony Wood, of some of Pushkin's lyric poetry (more, please!), which has not been served as well as his narrative verse. You can read Eugene Onegin in a number of middling to very good English translations (Chandler recommends the new Penguin version by Mitchell), but the lyric verse, like Goethe's, is almost impossible to convey. Another reason to learn Russian? The book includes a short but extremely well-chosen bibliography. Don't be put off by the cover.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have bought this book for my research on Alexander Pushkin, the greatest Russian poet. Despite the author's attempt to give as much important information on Pushkin's life and literary heritage as possible in 152 pages, every page is worth being mentioned in any serious research. Being of Russian origin myself, I feel truly fascinated that Chandler cites only those translators of Pushkin's poetry who have managed to reproduce the poet's melodic rhythm and delighful lexis rather than merely narrate some texts lacking any poetic coherence like Roger Clarke in his terrible version of Eugene Onegin & Other Stories. If you are interested in Eugene Onegin, then please buy Stanley Mitchell's version, and if you ever find books where such translators as Antony Wood and Robert Chandler himself are present - do not hesitate to obtain them too. I am very happy that I have used this book in my research and highly recommend it to anyone who loves Pushkin's poetry!
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
