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Alexandre Blok et son temps
Alexandre Blok, avant de mourir en 1921, avait formé le projet de quitter l'URSS. Un an plus tard, Nina Berberova partait pour l'Ouest. La coïncidence est révélatrice.
Ce livre qu'elle écrivit en France, en français, et qui date de 1947, ne fut pas seulement pour Nina Berberova une manière de rendre hommage, par la biographie du poète et le commentaire de son oeuvre, à l'écrivain qui, après Pouchkine, l'avait le plus influencée. C'était aussi une occasion pour elle d'évoquer le trouble, les illusions et le désarroi des intellectuels dans un temps marqué par l'équinoxe révolutionnaire. Et de laisser entendre ainsi à quelle sorte de sensibilité l'émigration se rattachait.
C'est pourquoi, au-delà de sa qualité monographique, «Alexandre Blok et son temps» prend place à côté de «C'est moi qui souligne», de «l'Histoire de la baronne Boudberg» et de «l'Affaire Kravtchenko».
Ce livre qu'elle écrivit en France, en français, et qui date de 1947, ne fut pas seulement pour Nina Berberova une manière de rendre hommage, par la biographie du poète et le commentaire de son oeuvre, à l'écrivain qui, après Pouchkine, l'avait le plus influencée. C'était aussi une occasion pour elle d'évoquer le trouble, les illusions et le désarroi des intellectuels dans un temps marqué par l'équinoxe révolutionnaire. Et de laisser entendre ainsi à quelle sorte de sensibilité l'émigration se rattachait.
C'est pourquoi, au-delà de sa qualité monographique, «Alexandre Blok et son temps» prend place à côté de «C'est moi qui souligne», de «l'Histoire de la baronne Boudberg» et de «l'Affaire Kravtchenko».
176 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1993
59 people want to read
About the author
Nina Berberova
105 books100 followersNina Nikolayevna Berberova was a Russian writer who chronicled the lives of Russian exiles in Paris in her short stories and novels. She visited post-Soviet Russia and died in Philadelphia.
Born in 1901 to an Armenian father and a Russian mother, Nina Berberova was brought up in St Petersburg.[1] She left Russia in 1922 with poet Vladislav Khodasevich (who died in 1939). The couple lived in several European cities before settling in Paris in 1925. There Berberova began publishing short stories for the Russian emigre publications Poslednie Novosti ("The Latest News") and Russkaia Mysl’ ("Russian Thought"). The stories collected in Oblegchenie Uchasti ("The Easing of Fate") and Biiankurskie Prazdniki ("Billancourt Fiestas") were written during this period. She also wrote the first book length biography of composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1936, which was controversial for its openness about his homosexuality. In Paris she was part of a circle of poor but distinguished visiting literary Russian exiles which included Anna Akhmatova, Vladimir Nabokov, Boris Pasternak, Tsvetaeva and Mayakovsky.
After living in Paris for 25 years, Berberova emigrated to the United States in 1950 and became an American citizen in 1959. She began her academic career in 1958 when she was hired to teach Russian at Yale. She continued to write while she was teaching, publishing several povesti (long short stories), critical articles and some poetry. She left Yale in 1963 for Princeton, where she taught until her retirement in 1971. In 1991 Berberova moved from Princeton, New Jersey to Philadelphia.
Berberova’s autobiography, which details her early life and years in France, was written in Russian but published first in English as The Italics are Mine (Harcourt, Brace & World, 1969). The Russian edition, Kursiv Moi, was not published until 1983.
Born in 1901 to an Armenian father and a Russian mother, Nina Berberova was brought up in St Petersburg.[1] She left Russia in 1922 with poet Vladislav Khodasevich (who died in 1939). The couple lived in several European cities before settling in Paris in 1925. There Berberova began publishing short stories for the Russian emigre publications Poslednie Novosti ("The Latest News") and Russkaia Mysl’ ("Russian Thought"). The stories collected in Oblegchenie Uchasti ("The Easing of Fate") and Biiankurskie Prazdniki ("Billancourt Fiestas") were written during this period. She also wrote the first book length biography of composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1936, which was controversial for its openness about his homosexuality. In Paris she was part of a circle of poor but distinguished visiting literary Russian exiles which included Anna Akhmatova, Vladimir Nabokov, Boris Pasternak, Tsvetaeva and Mayakovsky.
After living in Paris for 25 years, Berberova emigrated to the United States in 1950 and became an American citizen in 1959. She began her academic career in 1958 when she was hired to teach Russian at Yale. She continued to write while she was teaching, publishing several povesti (long short stories), critical articles and some poetry. She left Yale in 1963 for Princeton, where she taught until her retirement in 1971. In 1991 Berberova moved from Princeton, New Jersey to Philadelphia.
Berberova’s autobiography, which details her early life and years in France, was written in Russian but published first in English as The Italics are Mine (Harcourt, Brace & World, 1969). The Russian edition, Kursiv Moi, was not published until 1983.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 9, 2020
It's noted at the back of this book that there is a far more detailed account of Blok in Avril Pyman's two-volumed 'Life of Aleksandr Blok', of which was unknown to me.
Obviously I can't compare them, but I have to say, Berberova's short biography, which is under 150 pages long, does a pretty good job of covering the key moments in Blok's life, with her own text woven together with some of Blok's poetry, notebook entries, and letters, of which in the latter half sees a man totally taken over by a deep despair. He seemed to age so rapidly throughout his adult life, and died in agonizing pain, with those closest to him seeing an unrecognizable Blok on his deathbed. The book touches on some of his most important poems, his love for other Russian poets, including Apollon Grigoryev 1822-1864, his troubled friendship with Andrei Bely, his wife Lyubov whom he married in 1903, his travels, including Germany (of which he loved) and Italy, and of course the 1905 Russian Revolution, of which completely engulfed Blok, and played a massive role in shaping the poet he would become. He was, to my surprise, quite the ladies man, and had declared a few months before his death of having nearly three hundred sexual encounters. But it's not this that I will remember from the book, but rather a despairing Blok, when a huge black cloud was hovering over Russia.
Obviously I can't compare them, but I have to say, Berberova's short biography, which is under 150 pages long, does a pretty good job of covering the key moments in Blok's life, with her own text woven together with some of Blok's poetry, notebook entries, and letters, of which in the latter half sees a man totally taken over by a deep despair. He seemed to age so rapidly throughout his adult life, and died in agonizing pain, with those closest to him seeing an unrecognizable Blok on his deathbed. The book touches on some of his most important poems, his love for other Russian poets, including Apollon Grigoryev 1822-1864, his troubled friendship with Andrei Bely, his wife Lyubov whom he married in 1903, his travels, including Germany (of which he loved) and Italy, and of course the 1905 Russian Revolution, of which completely engulfed Blok, and played a massive role in shaping the poet he would become. He was, to my surprise, quite the ladies man, and had declared a few months before his death of having nearly three hundred sexual encounters. But it's not this that I will remember from the book, but rather a despairing Blok, when a huge black cloud was hovering over Russia.
April 4, 2016
Not really a biography. It read like a play, a one person show in which Berberova explains Blok, and channels him - performs her idea of Blok. Layers of apocalypse: a "monstrous and insane" Europe readying a global war; the suicide of the Russian state; the revolt of the masses; the confusion of the intelligentsia; and the prescience and frantic motions of one generation of that tortured tribe, the Russian Poets. Discipleship, rivalries, love triangles. Night walks. Despair in the dram shop. "He was above all proud of knowing, of being prepared for the catastrophe for which there was no cure."
December 2, 2021
After finishing, I read in the translator's notes that this is more an informal biography. Nothing could be truer. The first half of the book seems more like literary criticism regarding the Symbolist movement in early 20th Century Russia than a biography on Aleksandr Blok. The first half of the book also concentrated equally on the writer Andrey Bely, stirring an opinion that the book should have been titled "Blok and Bely". The second half deals more with Blok's writing, but I never came away with a real sense of his life. And even after reading the entire book, I am still in the dark as to what illness claimed Blok.
I've enjoyed Nina Berberova's novels in the past, so either she doesn't possess the same knack for writing non-fiction or the translator is at fault. I will say some passages were confusing to read. Even after re-reading a sentence or two, the meaning was not clear (this happened more than once).
All in all, I think I'd like to read a different biography on Aleksandr Blok.
I've enjoyed Nina Berberova's novels in the past, so either she doesn't possess the same knack for writing non-fiction or the translator is at fault. I will say some passages were confusing to read. Even after re-reading a sentence or two, the meaning was not clear (this happened more than once).
All in all, I think I'd like to read a different biography on Aleksandr Blok.
July 15, 2023
the aleksandr blok biography volume 1 finishes off with the kuzmin quote.
‘and why not get drunk sometimes, since life has turned out the way it has: there are moments when knowing something terrible and tragic comes quite close and a keen wind blows through the soul; and others when ‘life is so light, so very light’’
blok has been playing away (bad lad). but his actress girlfriend is too smart for him (‘joyfully I accept this strange book...’) and will not be caught. meanwhile he has crashed and burned his relationship with his wife (but at least he’s stopped her running off with bely). bely, ah bely, he’s finally managed to fall out properly with bely.
blok on bely - ‘I understand nothing about you and never will, and nor will anyone else.’
bely to blok - ’In view of the ‘complexity’ of our relations I liquidate that complexity by breaking off relations with you (except for chance meetings, greetings in the street etc.). don’t answer. all the best...’
‘and why not get drunk sometimes, since life has turned out the way it has: there are moments when knowing something terrible and tragic comes quite close and a keen wind blows through the soul; and others when ‘life is so light, so very light’’
blok has been playing away (bad lad). but his actress girlfriend is too smart for him (‘joyfully I accept this strange book...’) and will not be caught. meanwhile he has crashed and burned his relationship with his wife (but at least he’s stopped her running off with bely). bely, ah bely, he’s finally managed to fall out properly with bely.
blok on bely - ‘I understand nothing about you and never will, and nor will anyone else.’
bely to blok - ’In view of the ‘complexity’ of our relations I liquidate that complexity by breaking off relations with you (except for chance meetings, greetings in the street etc.). don’t answer. all the best...’
August 14, 2023
Для такого читателя как я -- незнакомого ни с жизнью Блока, ни с его произведениями, ни с литературными течениями конца XIX начала XX веков, книга Берберовой -- хороший вводный материал во все эти темы. Похоже что её экспертиза по Блоку оспаривается некоторыми -- даже если это так, дух того времени, атмосферу творческих брожений она всё-таки передаёт хорошо.
October 15, 2020
No, actually it was The sacred mountain by Alexandre Blokh aka Jean Blot, but darling GR is wanting in the topic. No matter. It was hard to swallow, an essay but not very uplifting. Meh.
October 23, 2024
Un po' frettoloso. Avrei voluto amare Blok, ma ne esce fuori una figura meschinella. Blok ha cambiato la poesia russa, il verso russo. Forse dopo Lomonosov e Puskin è il più importante, ma il mio russo non è sufficiente a leggerlo in originale e non ne percepisco la grandezza. Bella la parte finale, se non altro perché la Berberova è più direttamente coinvolta e si sentono suonare le corde dell'indignazione.
December 6, 2020
Isn’t it wonderful when one great writer writes a biography of another great writer? I remember visiting Blok’s home in St. Petersburg. I desperately regret not being able to read his poems in Russian.
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April 5, 2022Great bio
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews