It is accompanied by an introduction by Adam Thirwell discussing the novel's themes, extraordinary style and influence. This acclaimed translation captures all the idiosyncrasies and rhythms of Bely's extraordinary prose. Considered by writers such as Vladimir Nabokov to be one of the greatest masterpieces of the twentieth century, Bely's richly textured, darkly comic and symbolic novel pulled apart the traditional techniques of storytelling and presaged the dawn of a new form of literature. It is also an impressionistic, exhilarating panorama of the city itself, watched over by the bronze statue of Peter the Great, as it tears itself apart. 'Petersburg' is a story of suspense, family dysfunction, patricide, conspiracy and revolution.

But the official is Nikolai's cold, unyielding father, Apollon, and in twenty-four hours the bomb will explode.

An impressionable young university student, Nikolai, becomes involved with a revolutionary terror organization, which plans to assassinate a high government official with a time bomb. This 'Penguin Classics' edition is translated from the Russian by David McDuff with an introduction by Adam Thirlwell. Photo of Andrei Bely (1910s) from Wikipedia, Creative Commons.Andrei Bely's masterpiece, 'Petersburg' is a vivid, striking story set at the heart of the 1905 Russian revolution. A paragraph from Gerald Janacek’s The Look of Russian Literature that notes the shapes of the poems in “The Princess and the Knights” cycle.A wonderfully detailed review of David McDuff’s translation of Petersburg.“A Voice from the Past” is from Bely’s “fairytale” cycle “The Princess and the Knights,” which was inspired by his first wife, Anna Turgeneva.īely is probably best known in the West for his novel Petersburg, a favorite of Vladimir Nabokov’s: Petersburg evokes (among other things) revolutionaries, a statue freed from its pedestal, and lots of colors, (as befits Bely’s symbolist leanings), including, of course, red.īy the way: John Elsworth’s translation of Bely’s Petersburg won two translation awards in 2012: the Read Russia Prize and the Rossica Prize. Symbolist poet Andrei Bely’s recitation of his 1911 poem “A Voice from the Past,” replete with roiling, rolling r’s, conjures the feel of fog and the sound of swords of knights from far-away lands galloping north to save a princess.

Audio Andrei Bely’s Silver Age Symbolist Chivalry

Bely st petersburg