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Pushkin: Little Tragedies
This edition of Pushkin's tragedy "Boris Godunov" is part of the Bristol Classical Press Russian Texts series. The series is designed to meet the needs of the growinghigh school and undergraduate market for texts in the Russian language. Each text comes with English notes and vocabulary, and with an introduction by an editor with an expert knowledge both of the work and of its literary and cultural context
144 pages, Paperback
First published September 30, 1991
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27 people want to read
About the author
Alexander Pushkin
3,082 books3,491 followersWorks of Russian writer Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin include the verse novel
Eugene Onegin
(1831), the play
Boris Godunov
(1831), and many narrative and lyrical poems and short stories.
See also:
Russian: Александр Сергеевич Пушкин
French: Alexandre Pouchkine
Norwegian: Aleksander Pusjkin
Spanish:Aleksandr Pushkin
People consider this author the greatest poet and the founder of modern literature. Pushkin pioneered the use of vernacular speech in his poems, creating a style of storytelling—mixing drama, romance, and satire—associated ever with greatly influential later literature.
Pushkin published his first poem at the age of 15 years in 1814, and the literary establishment widely recognized him before the time of his graduation from the imperial lyceum in Tsarskoe Selo. Social reform gradually committed Pushkin, who emerged as a spokesman for literary radicals and in the early 1820s clashed with the government, which sent him into exile in southern Russia. Under the strict surveillance of government censors and unable to travel or publish at will, he wrote his most famous drama but ably published it not until years later. People published his verse serially from 1825 to 1832.
Pushkin and his wife Natalya Goncharova, whom he married in 1831, later became regulars of court society. In 1837, while falling into ever greater debt amidst rumors that his wife started conducting a scandalous affair, Pushkin challenged her alleged lover, Georges d'Anthès, to a duel. Pushkin was mortally wounded and died two days later.
Because of his liberal political views and influence on generations of Russian rebels, Pushkin was portrayed by Bolsheviks as an opponent to bourgeois literature and culture and a predecessor of Soviet literature and poetry. Tsarskoe Selo was renamed after him.
See also:
Russian: Александр Сергеевич Пушкин
French: Alexandre Pouchkine
Norwegian: Aleksander Pusjkin
Spanish:Aleksandr Pushkin
People consider this author the greatest poet and the founder of modern literature. Pushkin pioneered the use of vernacular speech in his poems, creating a style of storytelling—mixing drama, romance, and satire—associated ever with greatly influential later literature.
Pushkin published his first poem at the age of 15 years in 1814, and the literary establishment widely recognized him before the time of his graduation from the imperial lyceum in Tsarskoe Selo. Social reform gradually committed Pushkin, who emerged as a spokesman for literary radicals and in the early 1820s clashed with the government, which sent him into exile in southern Russia. Under the strict surveillance of government censors and unable to travel or publish at will, he wrote his most famous drama but ably published it not until years later. People published his verse serially from 1825 to 1832.
Pushkin and his wife Natalya Goncharova, whom he married in 1831, later became regulars of court society. In 1837, while falling into ever greater debt amidst rumors that his wife started conducting a scandalous affair, Pushkin challenged her alleged lover, Georges d'Anthès, to a duel. Pushkin was mortally wounded and died two days later.
Because of his liberal political views and influence on generations of Russian rebels, Pushkin was portrayed by Bolsheviks as an opponent to bourgeois literature and culture and a predecessor of Soviet literature and poetry. Tsarskoe Selo was renamed after him.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 21, 2007
I'm currently rehearsing this show with a Russian theatre group - although none of the cast is, or even speaks, Russian.
It was written by Alexander Pushkin back in the early 19th century. Wikipedia calls Pushkin 'the greatest Russian poet and the founder of modern Russian literature' because of his revolutionary use of the vernacular. And - as with Shakespeare - there's a lot of debate on the effectiveness of translating Pushkin.
The Little Tragedies consists of four rather large tragedies taken from common stories. Act one, The Miserly Knight, is the story of a miserly father refusing to give his money wasting son his inheritance. In the end the two take the matter to court where the argument escalates into the challenge of a duel and the father dies rather suddenly of a ?heart attack?
Act two's only characters are Mozart and his teacher/mentor/contemporary Salieri. This is where Peter Schaffer takes his inspiration for Amadeus. The story is simple: After dedicating his life to music, Salieri is enraged by Mozart's disregard for his incredible gift and poisons him.
Third, The Stone Guest, is a tale about Don Juan returning from his exile to continue ruining young women in Madrid. On his first night in town he kills Don Carlos, the brother of the the knight-commander (whom he killed prior to banishment), when he finds him in the bedroom of his lover, Laura. He then tries to seduce the knight-commander's widow, Dona Anna, and is doing pretty well until he jokingly invites the statue of the knight-commander to guard the door of Dona Anna's house when he pays her a visit. Well, you guessed it, the statue arrives, the lady faints, and the stone guest crushes poor Don Juan.
And the last act, and my favorite, is A Feast During the Plague - this haunting story about a group of young people reveling while their city is dying. It's based on John Wilson's play The City of the Plague written just a few years before and their isn't a lot of plot per se, but some creepy melodies as the group sings and shouts, all the while, taking pauses to remember the dead and contemplate their own end. A priest tries to disband the troupe chastising them for hosting a 'joyous' event with the world practically ending around them, but the chairman holds his ground. When the priest brings up the chairman's dead wife 'Matilda's pure soul calls you!' The Chairman loses it and tells his 'Holy child of light!' that he will die in hell. It's quite disturbing.
Okay, Thank you.
It was written by Alexander Pushkin back in the early 19th century. Wikipedia calls Pushkin 'the greatest Russian poet and the founder of modern Russian literature' because of his revolutionary use of the vernacular. And - as with Shakespeare - there's a lot of debate on the effectiveness of translating Pushkin.
The Little Tragedies consists of four rather large tragedies taken from common stories. Act one, The Miserly Knight, is the story of a miserly father refusing to give his money wasting son his inheritance. In the end the two take the matter to court where the argument escalates into the challenge of a duel and the father dies rather suddenly of a ?heart attack?
Act two's only characters are Mozart and his teacher/mentor/contemporary Salieri. This is where Peter Schaffer takes his inspiration for Amadeus. The story is simple: After dedicating his life to music, Salieri is enraged by Mozart's disregard for his incredible gift and poisons him.
Third, The Stone Guest, is a tale about Don Juan returning from his exile to continue ruining young women in Madrid. On his first night in town he kills Don Carlos, the brother of the the knight-commander (whom he killed prior to banishment), when he finds him in the bedroom of his lover, Laura. He then tries to seduce the knight-commander's widow, Dona Anna, and is doing pretty well until he jokingly invites the statue of the knight-commander to guard the door of Dona Anna's house when he pays her a visit. Well, you guessed it, the statue arrives, the lady faints, and the stone guest crushes poor Don Juan.
And the last act, and my favorite, is A Feast During the Plague - this haunting story about a group of young people reveling while their city is dying. It's based on John Wilson's play The City of the Plague written just a few years before and their isn't a lot of plot per se, but some creepy melodies as the group sings and shouts, all the while, taking pauses to remember the dead and contemplate their own end. A priest tries to disband the troupe chastising them for hosting a 'joyous' event with the world practically ending around them, but the chairman holds his ground. When the priest brings up the chairman's dead wife 'Matilda's pure soul calls you!' The Chairman loses it and tells his 'Holy child of light!' that he will die in hell. It's quite disturbing.
Okay, Thank you.
Read
August 8, 2017[The Covetous Knight, Mozart and Salieri, The Stone Guest]
September 20, 2021
Not bad, Mozart and Salieri definitely stand out as a proto-Amadeus piece that first begins to delve into a common trope in Russian literature- lunacy.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews