Andrey Bely

An unabridged translation of Bely's masterful, comic fiction of reactionary officials, nihilistic revolutionaries, a would-be parricide, a bomb concealed in a sardine can, and the city which as setting and character focuses the Russian search for national identity

Petersburg

In this incomparable novel of the seething revolutionary Russia of 1905, Andrey Bely plays ingeniously on the great themes of Russian history and literature as he tells the mesmerizing tale of Apollon Apollonovich Ableukhov, a high-ranking Tsarist official, and his dilettante son, Nikolai, an aspiring terrorist, whose first assignment is to assassinate his father.

St. Petersburg

Antony Wood

The Silver Dove, published four years before Bely's masterpiece Petersburg, is considered the first modern Russian novel. Breaking with Russian realism, and a pioneering Symbolist work, its vividly drawn characters, elemental landscapes, and rich style make it accessible to the Western reader, and this new translation makes the complete work available in English for the first time. Dissatisfied with the life of the intelligentsia, the poet Daryalsky joins a rural mystic sect, the Silver Doves. The locals, in particular the peasant woman Matryona, are fascinated by the dashing stranger. Daryalsky is in turn taken in by the Doves' intimacy with the mystical and spiritual--and by Matryona. Under the influence of Kudeyarov, the ruthless cult leader, Daryalsky is used in a bid to produce a sacred child. But in time the poet disappoints the Doves and must face their suspicions and jealousies--and his own inevitable dire fate.

The Silver Dove

На рубеже двух столетий

Moskva

Zapiski mechtateleĭ

Четвертая симфонія

Кубок метелей

Bely's autobiographical novel describes family life and the academic circles of Moscow at the end of the nineteenth century. It captures the memory and imagination of a child in the sustained rhythmic prose of an adult Symbolist poet and theoretician. This translation seeks to convey accurately the complexity and special magic of Bely's ornamental prose.

The Christened Chinaman

Boris Nikolaevich Bugaev

Columbia University. Russian Institute

Taking place over a short, turbulent period in 1905, Petersburg is a colourful evocation of Russia's capital - a kaleidoscope of images and impressions, an eastern window on the west, a symbol of the ambiguities and paradoxes of the Russian character. History, culture and politics are blended and juxtaposed; weather reports, current news, fashions and psychology jostle together with people from Petersburg society in an exhilarating search for the identity of a city and, ultimately, Russia itself.

First published in Russian in 1921 and never translated, Andrey Bely's long narrative poem—considered to be one of the great achievements of Russian Modernism—is translated to English here. A poet, critic, philosopher, and novelist, Bely was a leading figure among the Russian Symbolists, and The First Encounter is thought to be his greatest work in verse. The poem is autobiographical and reflects turn of-the-century Moscow with its mixture of entrenched positivism and new spiritualistic trends, cultural variety and the upheaval of the time. Originally published in 1979. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

The First Encounter

Gerald Janecek

A Russian novel which looks at childhood, seen through the eyes of a boy from the age of three to five years, in the 1800s.

Andrey Bely

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