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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #885209 in Books
• Published on: 1997-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 608 pages

Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Russian

Customer Reviews

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.

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.