Pähkinälinnan vanki

by Henri Troyat, Jukka Mannerkorpi (Translator)

Pyhä vanha Venäjänmaa on taustana romaanissa, jonka aiheen Henri Troyat, Ranskan Waltari, on poiminut esiin historian hämäristä, Katariina II:n valtakaudelta. Kirjan päähenkilö, nuori tulisieluinen aliluutnantti Vasili Mirovitš on todella elänyt ja totta on myös hänen mystinen suunnitelmansa, vallankaappausyritys joka oli vähällä järisyttää koko keisarikuntaa. Näiden tosiseikkojen pohjalta Troyat on antanut mielikuvituksensa lentää, luonut nautittavan tarinan kaikille historiallisen romaanin ystäville.

247 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Troyat was a French author, biographer, historian and novelist.

Troyat was born Levon Aslan Torossian in Moscow to parents of Armenian descent. His family fled Russia in anticipation of the revolution. After a long exodus taking them to the Caucasus on to Crimea and later by sea to Constantinople and then Venice, the family finally settled in Paris in 1920, where young Troyat was schooled and later earned a law degree. The stirring and tragic events of this flight across half of Europe are vividly recounted by Troyat in 'Tant que la terre durera'.

Troyat received his first literary award, Le prix du roman populaire, at the age of twenty-four, and by twenty-seven, he was awarded the Prix Goncourt.

Troyat published more than 100 books, novels and biographies, among them those of Anton Chekhov, Catherine the Great, Rasputin, Ivan the Terrible and Leo Tolstoy.

Troyat's best-known work is La neige en deuil, which was adapted as an English-language film in 1956 under the title The Mountain.

He was elected as a member of the Académie française in 1959. At the time of his death, Troyat was the longest serving member of the Academy.

From Wikipedia

Reviews

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel is based on actual events in Russia at the beginning of Catherine the Great's reign, when a coup was attempted to return the prince Ivan to the throne after Catherine's victory over Peter III. Catherine was German and it didn't go down very well with nationalistic, pious Russians when she began to modernize their country according to Enlightenment principles (this was pretty much all I knew about Catherine before reading this). In a time when Putin seems determined to activate his vision of ancient Russian domination according to strict Orthodox principles, this history seems particularly relevant. In the beginning, Basile is a frustrated idealistic young man whose family has fallen from grace under the new regime - he just wants to recover his family's land and social position. Troyat traces his growing fanaticism, connected with his vision of Orthodox piety, complete with Bible poking to find verses that will confirm his divine election as the instrument of God to re-establish Christian morality in Russia (Catherine the Great had arranged for the murder of her husband & then proceeded to take a series of lovers, beginning with Gregoire Orlov, who indeed is a most repulsive character as described by Troyat).
The French is quite readable and Troyat's writing is memorable - I could actually visualize the landscapes and the prison where Ivan was held. He's a really good writer, as is to be expected of a member of the Academie française. As a novelist he is a bit hampered here by history and by the fact that fanatics are really not very interesting - the middle of the book drags because we know how it will turn out and we get a bit impatient with Basile. But the end makes up for this - my rating changed from 3 to 4 stars, totally due to the cliff-hanger of an ending. His description of Catherine the Great made me want to read a biography - and yes, he wrote one!
I'm so happy to discover Troyat - thanks to my friend Claude who is also on Goodreads!

[Nicole Haupt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un clásico muy al estilo de las,grandes novelas rusas.