RUSSIAN WRITERS

by Helen Muchnic ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 23, 1971

Russian literature is a phenomenon of the nineteenth century. It is unique, vast, and mystical, a veritable apostolic succession of literary giants, from Pushkin to Chekhov. These irresistible writers, both responding to and reacting against the prevailing culture of Europe, created not only one masterpiece after another, but also a passionate history of the times, more prophetic and varied, perhaps, than that to be found in Goethe or Balzac or Dickens. It is customary to say, as Dostoevsky did, that they ""all came out of Gogol's Overcoat."" Helen Muchnic places the patrimony a bit earlier. ""Pushkin's stories are delightful, but they are more than this. Some of the greatest Russian fiction took rise in them: the germ of Turgenev's A Sportsman's Sketches is in 'Dubrovsky,' that of Crime and Punishment in 'The Queen of Spades,' of War and Peace in 'The Captain's Daughter.' "" Professor Muchnic stresses the diversity and embattled autonomy of Pushkin and Gogol, Turgenev and Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and Chekhov, showing how each masterfully conveyed, from one generation to the next, the peculiar character of the Russian soul. All had goals, visions, lessons to impart. It is only when we enter the modern world that the astonishing continuity breaks down and everything becomes problematic. Yet not completely so, for the glory of the best Soviet writers, those hounded, exiled, or murdered under Stalinism, comes from their heroic decision not to deny the past or give up on the future. It is an admirable chronicle, scholarly in details and dramatic in perspective.

Pub Date: March 23, 1971

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1971

Categories: NONFICTION