Nightingale fever: Russian poets in revolution

by Ronald Hingley

This book, first published in 1981, examines the dramatic and tragic stories of four of the greatest Russian poets of the twentieth century, their struggle to survive the Stalin years, and their dedication to their art despite considerable personal danger. Interweaving the stories of Anna Akhmatova, Osip Mandelstam, Boris Pasternak and Marina Tsvetayeva, the noted Russian scholar Ronald Hingley traces their education, the literary schools and traditions with which they were associated, the impact of World War I and the Bolshevik Revolution on their work, and the emergence of their distinct and disparate styles. He examines how the four influenced and affected each other - as colleague, critic or rival, friend or lover - and, as their fates were increasingly caught up in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, how they came to depend on each other for solace and refuge. This book makes vivid the historic conflict between artists and political authority, and shows how they came into conflict with the Stalinist totalitarian regime intent on their destruction. Ronald Hingley's brilliant narrative and superb translations of many of the major poems give us a haunting story of artistic achievement and heroic resistance.

Genres: Poetry

269 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Dr. Ronald Francis Hingley (1920-2010) was a scholar, translator and historian of Russia, specializing in Russian history and literature.

Hingley was editor of the nine-volume collection of Chekhov's works published by Oxford University Press between 1974 and 1980. He also wrote numerous books including biographies of Chekhov, Dostoyevsky, Stalin and Boris Pasternak. He won the James Tait Black Award for his 1976 biography A New Life of Anton Chekhov . He also translated several works of Russian literature, among them Alexander Solzhenitsyn's classic One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich which Hingley co-translated with Max Hayward.

He was a Governing Body Fellow of St Antony's College, Oxford from 1961 to 1987 and an Emeritus Fellow from 1987 onwards.

His son is the musician Tom Hingley.

Reviews

[stevenallenmay · Rating 3 out of 5]

it was okay