THE WRATH OF DIONYSUS

Here is the first English translation of a popular Russian novel, published in 1910 and well-known throughout Europe, about the life and amours of a liberated (not to say libertine) woman artist, Tatiana Kuznetsova. The story's major concern is Tatiana's vacillating devotion to the rival claims of love and/or marriage vs. vocation, and its rather interesting subtext plays clever variations on the theme of the fluidity of sexual orientation. Racy, romantic, and essentially indistinguishable from dozens of basically similar fictions then and since, this reads like--you should pardon the expression--the product of a marriage between George Sand and Jackie Collins. Escapist reading to take with you to the dacha.