Posts Tagged ‘Alexander Pushkin’

Media Center: ‘Novel, Tales, Journeys’ by Alexander Pushkin

November 10th, 2016

WHO: Alexander Pushkin

WHAT: NOVELS, TALES, JOURNEYS: The Complete Prose
— a new translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky

WHEN: Published by Knopf November 23, 2016

WHERE: Russia!

WHY: “A long overdue collection that speaks truly and well to Pushkin’s brilliance as a prose stylist as well as observer of the world.
“A superb gathering of writings by the short-lived author Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837), best known as a poet — but, argues translator Pevear, also ‘the true originator of Russian prose.’
“Scholars will argue over whether Evgeny Onegin is novel or poem, but this anthology makes a clear distinction between verse and prose, then gathers all of Pushkin’s prose writings, down to a few delicious fragments. One of them, it seems, was enough to inspire Leo Tolstoy to build the novelistic world of Anna Karenina around just a few words; though prolific and seemingly capable of writing masterfully in any genre, Pushkin’s finished prose pieces are frustratingly few. Perhaps the best of them, the novel The Captain’s Daughter, is a study in fine detail…Like so much early modern Russian literature, that novel and Pushkin’s other tales sometimes seem exotic, sketches from a long-vanished world in which a tutor amuses himself by seducing ‘a fat and pockmarked wench and the one-eyed milkmaid Akulka’ and a young woman, awakening, ‘beckoned to the maid and sent her for the dwarf.’
“Still, all the universal emotions and realities are in play, from jealousy to greed and overweening ambition, and Pevear and his longtime partner Volokhonsky render Pushkin’s words in an easy, conversational tone that is very far from the fustiness of the Constance Garnett renderings of old. The completed pieces are masterful, but the fragments are tantalizing; one wonders what Pushkin would have done had he lived to complete the piece that begins, ‘My fate is decided. I am getting married….'”
—KIRKUS, a starred review

“Readers will delight at the originality of these timeless piece.
This new translation of Pushkin’s prose works is filled with vivid characters and a charming voice. Pushkin’s lively and often ironic tone feels fresh as ever, and the harmony and perfection that Leo Tolstoy praised still radiates from these literary gems.” —Herman Sutter, in a starred review for LIBRARY JOURNAL

“An indispensable edition of the master’s complete prose.
Pushkin the storyteller is witty and compassionate, panoramic and precise. Although he’s best known in the States for poetry, in this thoughtfully annotated, syntactically loyal edition, readers will discover another facet of a prodigious talent.”
—PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

Photo of translators

Media Resources:
About the book, the author, and the translators | Read an excerpt | Download the jacket | Download the portrait of Pushkin | Download a photo of the translators

Knopf. 484 pages. $30 ISBN 978-0-307-95962-1


To interview the translators, contact:
Kathy Zuckerman | 212-572-2105 | kzuckerman@penguinrandomhouse.com