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tournesolrose's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
atelierofbooks's review against another edition
5.0
"The other day, after my work, I picked up this volume of Pushkin and as always (for the seventh time, I think) read it from cover to cover, unable to tear myself away, as if I were reading it for the first time. More than that, it was as if it dispelled all my doubts. Never have I admired Pushkin so much, nor anyone else for that matter. The Shot, Egyptian Nights, The Captain’s Daughter!!!" - Leo Tolstoy
Tolstoy used three exclamation marks, so I can too. This book!!!
For me, classic Russian literature is not exactly fun to read. It's beautiful and provoking but not what I would call a good time. So I was really surprised at this witty and fun collection of short stories that made me feel...I guess, genuine delight. Which sounds like such an old fashioned way to describe something but its true, I was really delighted. Because I knew nothing about this going into it and I was caught off guard by how it made me laugh out loud and gasp at all the little enchanting surprises. It really is devilishly clever and satisfying to read.
I especially loved The Shot, The Blizzard, and The Young Lady Peasant. But I have to give a special shout-out to The Stationmaster because it highlights what I most like about Pushkin; the way he writes women. Guess what? Terrible things don't happen to women in his stories, even when they do things like run away from home with strange men. (This is, incidentally, the quality I most like about Jane Austen too).
These aren't morality tales trying to scare proper behavior into girls. They aren't bitter stories written by a jaded writer who has been burned by his relationships with women. So much of classic fiction is women either reaping the tragic consequences of poor choices or being objects of love/desire/temptation for men. And the characterization stops there. Pushkin writes a woman's inner voice sparingly, but when he does it's actually really relatable. He gives them agency and writes them like his men. That is, like people. And I really love the way he writes men too, because that's who he knew best. Maybe the reason why his male characters have such widely varying fates, foibles, and personalities is because he's never self-inserting, he's just writing what he observed of men and their nature.
In the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation I read, Pushkin's prose is really like crystal; so fresh and clean, deceptively light until it you realize how multifaceted it is. And for those who say these are 'just' fun stories...well yeah. “Emptiness is Pushkin’s content. Without it he would not be full, he would not be, just as there is no fire without air, no breathing in without breathing out.” - Andrei Sinyavsky.
joecam79's review against another edition
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 Goryukhino”, 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 Goryukhino”, 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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