The design and UX isn't done, Rob and Abbie, okkurrrr! š
joecam79's review
4.0
"Meta-literature", "parody and pastiche", "genre-bending", "narrative experiment"... sounds like a brainstorming session for a class about postmodernist literature - except that these are all terms which could fit Pushkin's "The Tales of Belkin". Written in the autumn of 1830, this is a collection of short tales supposedly collected by the recently-deceased Belkin, whose sketchy biography is provided in an introductory letter by an anonymous friend of the late author. The stories parody various genres - ranging from the supernatural/Gothic (The Undertaker) to the sentimental (The Mistress Peasant) - and show Pushkin's mastery of each.
This handsome Hesperus Classics edition also contains "A History of the Village of Goryukhinoā, another witty pastiche, this time of the high-flown style adopted by 18th and 19th Century Russian historians. It is complemented by a two-and-a-half page "Fragment" in which the narrator describes the life of a friend of his who happens to be a poet. We eventually learn that the narrator is himself the "friend" of whom he is speaking - our expectations are then further dashed in a final paragraph in which the supposed "editors" of the text inform us that this is an introduction to an incomplete work. In this collection, "style becomes content" - but isn't that what postmodern literature is supposed to be about?
The fluent and idiomatic translation is by Hugh Aplin, who also provides an introduction about the circumstances in which the works were written. Adam Thirwell's foreword gives some interesting insights into Pushkin's playful use of parody and pastiche.
This handsome Hesperus Classics edition also contains "A History of the Village of Goryukhinoā, another witty pastiche, this time of the high-flown style adopted by 18th and 19th Century Russian historians. It is complemented by a two-and-a-half page "Fragment" in which the narrator describes the life of a friend of his who happens to be a poet. We eventually learn that the narrator is himself the "friend" of whom he is speaking - our expectations are then further dashed in a final paragraph in which the supposed "editors" of the text inform us that this is an introduction to an incomplete work. In this collection, "style becomes content" - but isn't that what postmodern literature is supposed to be about?
The fluent and idiomatic translation is by Hugh Aplin, who also provides an introduction about the circumstances in which the works were written. Adam Thirwell's foreword gives some interesting insights into Pushkin's playful use of parody and pastiche.
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