Product Description

Alexander Pushkin's dramatic work displays a scintillating variety of forms, from the historical to the metaphysical and folkloric. After Boris Godunov, they evolved into Pushkin's own unique, condensed transformations of Western European themes and traditions. The fearful amorality of A Scene from Faust is followed by the four Little Tragedies, which confront greed, envy, lust, and blasphemy, while Rusalka is a tragedy of a different kind--a lyric fairytale of despair and transformation.
Here, James E. Falen's verse translations are accompanied by a first-rate introduction from Caryl Emerson, an equally distinguished Russianist, which emphasizes the cosmopolitan nature of Pushkin's drama, the position of Russian culture on the European stage, together with excellent analyses of the individual works in the volume. Falen's translations of Pushkin are widely admired and his OWC translation of Eugene Onegin is considered the best available. This collection is sure to interest both casual readers and students of Russian literature.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #97005 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780199211302
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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About the Author

James E. Falen is Emeritus Professor of Russian at the University of Tennessee.
Caryl Emerson is the A. Watson Armour III Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures at Princeton University. She is the author of The Uncensored Boris Godunov.

Customer Reviews

Pushkin- poet or dramatist?
For those of us who enjoy Pushkin but are necessarily restricted to translations, it is a boon to have the dramatic works now conveniently available in one volume.The liveliness of the translation, which was such a feature of Falen's translation of Eugene Onegin, makes these works a delight to read.It is said that the five dramatic works contain some of the author's most famous lines, which generations of Russian students have learnt by heart, but they are rarely performed, and are seriously flawed as stage productions.
Briggs has argued that the received criticism of the dramas-that Boris Godonov,because of its structure, which seems to be no more than a random collection of disjointed scenes, is unstageable;and that the four "Little Tragedies"are among Pushkin's finest works- has got it the wrong way around.He finds unifying elements in Boris Godonov, which he says should commend it to producers. The Little Tragedies, on the other hand,have in his opinion been extravgently praised, and notwithstanding their poetic heights, as dramatic works they are experiments that ended in failure.
Buy this Falen translation and enjoy testing Briggs's literary criticism for yourself.