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Peter the Great's African: Experiments in Prose
Newly translated, unfinished works about power, class conflict, and artistic inspiration by Russia's greatest poet.
Alexander Pushkin, Russia’s foundational writer, was constantly experimenting with new genres, and this fresh selection ushers readers into his creative laboratory. Politics and history weighed heavily on Pushkin’s imagination, and in “Peter the Great’s African” he depicts the Tsar through the eyes of one of his closest confidantes, Ibrahim, a former slave, modeled on Pushkin’s maternal great-grandfather. At once outsider and insider, Ibrahim offers a sympathetic yet questioning view of Peter’s attempt to integrate his vast, archaic empire into Europe. In the witty “History of the Village of Goriukhino” Pushkin employs parody and self-parody to explore problems of writing history, while “Dubrovsky” is both a gripping adventure story and a vivid picture of provincial Russia in the late eighteenth century, with its class conflicts ready to boil over in violence. “The Egyptian Nights,” an effervescent mixture of prose and poetry, reflects on the nature of artistic inspiration and the problem of the poet’s place in a rapidly changing and ever more commercialized society.
Alexander Pushkin, Russia’s foundational writer, was constantly experimenting with new genres, and this fresh selection ushers readers into his creative laboratory. Politics and history weighed heavily on Pushkin’s imagination, and in “Peter the Great’s African” he depicts the Tsar through the eyes of one of his closest confidantes, Ibrahim, a former slave, modeled on Pushkin’s maternal great-grandfather. At once outsider and insider, Ibrahim offers a sympathetic yet questioning view of Peter’s attempt to integrate his vast, archaic empire into Europe. In the witty “History of the Village of Goriukhino” Pushkin employs parody and self-parody to explore problems of writing history, while “Dubrovsky” is both a gripping adventure story and a vivid picture of provincial Russia in the late eighteenth century, with its class conflicts ready to boil over in violence. “The Egyptian Nights,” an effervescent mixture of prose and poetry, reflects on the nature of artistic inspiration and the problem of the poet’s place in a rapidly changing and ever more commercialized society.
208 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1837
28 people are currently reading
539 people want to read
About the author
Alexander Pushkin
3,084 books3,444 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 - 30 of 64 reviews
January 15, 2021
4,5*
“Of all the young men who have been educated in foreign lands the Tsar’s negro (the Lord forgive me!) is more of a man than any.”
“Dear me, prince!” said Tatiana Afanassyevna. “I have seen him, seen him quite close... what a dreadful visage! I was quite scared.
Encontrei em “The Negro of Peter the Great” exactamente o mesmo escritor empolgante e irresistível que em “Dama de Espadas”e lamentei não conhecer o final quando esta história inacabada chegou ao fim, a meio de uma frase. Alexander Pushkin inspirou-se no seu bisavô materno, um africano trazido para a Rússia, para criar Ibrahim, um protegido do Czar Pedro o Grande, que regressa de Paris, onde esteve a restabelecer-se de ferimentos sofridos na guerra, para uma corte russa não tão deslumbrante mas em profunda transformação, que o olha com desconfiança e até aversão.
“But what can we do, if we are not free in the matter?” retorted Kirila Petrovich. “Many a husband would be only too glad to shut up his wife in the women’s apartments at the top at the top of the house, but they come with beating drums to summon her to the Assembly. The husband goes after the whip, but the wife is busy dressing. Ugh, those Assemblies! They’re the Lord’s punishment for our sins.
“Of all the young men who have been educated in foreign lands the Tsar’s negro (the Lord forgive me!) is more of a man than any.”
“Dear me, prince!” said Tatiana Afanassyevna. “I have seen him, seen him quite close... what a dreadful visage! I was quite scared.
Encontrei em “The Negro of Peter the Great” exactamente o mesmo escritor empolgante e irresistível que em “Dama de Espadas”e lamentei não conhecer o final quando esta história inacabada chegou ao fim, a meio de uma frase. Alexander Pushkin inspirou-se no seu bisavô materno, um africano trazido para a Rússia, para criar Ibrahim, um protegido do Czar Pedro o Grande, que regressa de Paris, onde esteve a restabelecer-se de ferimentos sofridos na guerra, para uma corte russa não tão deslumbrante mas em profunda transformação, que o olha com desconfiança e até aversão.
“But what can we do, if we are not free in the matter?” retorted Kirila Petrovich. “Many a husband would be only too glad to shut up his wife in the women’s apartments at the top at the top of the house, but they come with beating drums to summon her to the Assembly. The husband goes after the whip, but the wife is busy dressing. Ugh, those Assemblies! They’re the Lord’s punishment for our sins.
February 18, 2020
"This power of the Negro to suck up the national spirit from the soil and create something artistic and original, which, at the same time, possesses the note of universal appeal, is due to a remarkable racial gift of adaptability; it is more than adaptability, it is a transfusive quality. And the Negro has exercised this transfusive quality not only here in America, where the race lives in large numbers, but in European countries, where the number has been almost infinitesimal.
Is it not curious to know that the greatest poet of Russia is Alexander Pushkin, a man of African descent; that the greatest romancer of France is Alexandre Dumas, a man of African descent; and that one of the greatest musicians of England is Coleridge-Taylor, a man of African descent?
The fact is fairly well known that the father of Dumas was a Negro of the French West Indies, and that the father of Coleridge-Taylor was a native-born African; but the facts concerning Pushkin's African ancestry are not so familiar.
When Peter the Great was Czar of Russia, some potentate presented him with a full-blooded Negro of gigantic size. Peter, the most eccentric ruler of modern times, dressed this Negro up in soldier clothes, christened him [Abraham Petrovich] Hannibal, and made him a special body-guard.
But Hannibal had more than size, he had brain and ability. He not only looked picturesque and imposing in soldier clothes, he showed that he had in him the making of a real soldier. Peter recognized this, and eventually made him a general. He afterwards ennobled him, and Hannibal, later, married one of the ladies of the Russian court. This same Hannibal was great-grandfather of Pushkin, the national poet of Russia, the man who bears the same relation to Russian literature that Shakespeare bears to English literature." - James Weldon Johnson, The Book of American Negro Poetry
I have been reading Russian literature for awhile, but I have finally read something by the Father of Russian Literature. Of course, what I have chosen to read first is his first effort, unpublished during his life, at writing prose. Alexander Pushkin was already well-known as the great poet of the day, but he wanted to show he could write prose like the writers of western Europe that he loved. His first effort was a biography of his great-grandfather Abram Petrovich Gannibal. Gannibal was from Cameroon, he had been kidnapped in Cameroon and made his way to Petersburg where he was presented as a "gift" to the city's founder: Czar Peter the Great. This was in the beginning of Peter's reform movement to break Russia from its Mongolian past and move closer to the West. As it was, the Russian Empire did not have a need for the African Slave Trade because it was still very much practicing Russian serfdom. So Gannibal was instead baptized into the Russian Orthodox Church and became the godson of Peter the Great.
This book was not finished, so it exist as a fragment of what was obviously suppose to be a bigger story. It begins with Abram stationed in Paris assisting the French military government, before going back to Petersburg to take his place proper in Peter's Russia. Given Pushkin's reputation as an out-spoken liberal in post-Napoleonic era Europe, he made sure to contrast the old guard nobles, with the Great Reformer Peter; even in this scrapped work, you see why this guy is considered the beginning of Russian literature as we know it today. I do like how he shows, without hesitation, the reaction of the obviously prejudiced European nobility to Abram and Abram's humanity and, unlike other writers of the day who portrayed black folk, Pushkin does not let the narration or his great-grandfather become a stereotype. Gannibal is just a regular guy navigating France and Russia in this book.
With all that being said, this story ends mid-sentence. We know that certain parts of this book were given artistic license by Pushkin (for obvious reasons), we can only imagine where he would have taken the story, but we do know that it would have been good. The translation I read by Rosemary Edmonds was excellent for an older English translation. I look forward to reading more on and by Alexander Pushkin.
Is it not curious to know that the greatest poet of Russia is Alexander Pushkin, a man of African descent; that the greatest romancer of France is Alexandre Dumas, a man of African descent; and that one of the greatest musicians of England is Coleridge-Taylor, a man of African descent?
The fact is fairly well known that the father of Dumas was a Negro of the French West Indies, and that the father of Coleridge-Taylor was a native-born African; but the facts concerning Pushkin's African ancestry are not so familiar.
When Peter the Great was Czar of Russia, some potentate presented him with a full-blooded Negro of gigantic size. Peter, the most eccentric ruler of modern times, dressed this Negro up in soldier clothes, christened him [Abraham Petrovich] Hannibal, and made him a special body-guard.
But Hannibal had more than size, he had brain and ability. He not only looked picturesque and imposing in soldier clothes, he showed that he had in him the making of a real soldier. Peter recognized this, and eventually made him a general. He afterwards ennobled him, and Hannibal, later, married one of the ladies of the Russian court. This same Hannibal was great-grandfather of Pushkin, the national poet of Russia, the man who bears the same relation to Russian literature that Shakespeare bears to English literature." - James Weldon Johnson, The Book of American Negro Poetry
I have been reading Russian literature for awhile, but I have finally read something by the Father of Russian Literature. Of course, what I have chosen to read first is his first effort, unpublished during his life, at writing prose. Alexander Pushkin was already well-known as the great poet of the day, but he wanted to show he could write prose like the writers of western Europe that he loved. His first effort was a biography of his great-grandfather Abram Petrovich Gannibal. Gannibal was from Cameroon, he had been kidnapped in Cameroon and made his way to Petersburg where he was presented as a "gift" to the city's founder: Czar Peter the Great. This was in the beginning of Peter's reform movement to break Russia from its Mongolian past and move closer to the West. As it was, the Russian Empire did not have a need for the African Slave Trade because it was still very much practicing Russian serfdom. So Gannibal was instead baptized into the Russian Orthodox Church and became the godson of Peter the Great.
This book was not finished, so it exist as a fragment of what was obviously suppose to be a bigger story. It begins with Abram stationed in Paris assisting the French military government, before going back to Petersburg to take his place proper in Peter's Russia. Given Pushkin's reputation as an out-spoken liberal in post-Napoleonic era Europe, he made sure to contrast the old guard nobles, with the Great Reformer Peter; even in this scrapped work, you see why this guy is considered the beginning of Russian literature as we know it today. I do like how he shows, without hesitation, the reaction of the obviously prejudiced European nobility to Abram and Abram's humanity and, unlike other writers of the day who portrayed black folk, Pushkin does not let the narration or his great-grandfather become a stereotype. Gannibal is just a regular guy navigating France and Russia in this book.
With all that being said, this story ends mid-sentence. We know that certain parts of this book were given artistic license by Pushkin (for obvious reasons), we can only imagine where he would have taken the story, but we do know that it would have been good. The translation I read by Rosemary Edmonds was excellent for an older English translation. I look forward to reading more on and by Alexander Pushkin.
September 21, 2022
YouTube kanalımda Puşkin'in hayatı, bütün kitapları ve kronolojik okuma sırası hakkında bilgi edinebilirsiniz:
https://youtu.be/nljKaOPQcBI
Yarım kalmış olmasına rağmen Puşkin okumak isteyenler için en iyi başlangıç eserlerinden biri. Rus sosyetesi ve sosyete arasında gizli kalmış potansiyel ırkçılığın, hatta görücü usulü Rus evliliğinin yaklaşık 190 yıl önce özgün bir şekilde Puşkin tarafından yazımını içeren eser aslında Dostoyevski'nin eserlerinde de sıkça bahsedilen özgür düşüncenin o zamanların Rusyasında yasak oluşunun anlaşılması açısından da aydınlatıcı nitelik taşımakta. Yarım kalmış olması ise Puşkin'in bundan sonraki eserleri açısından perçinleyici bir görev görüyor. Bir hocamın dediği bir söz vardır : "En güzel buluşma yarım kalandır."
https://youtu.be/nljKaOPQcBI
Yarım kalmış olmasına rağmen Puşkin okumak isteyenler için en iyi başlangıç eserlerinden biri. Rus sosyetesi ve sosyete arasında gizli kalmış potansiyel ırkçılığın, hatta görücü usulü Rus evliliğinin yaklaşık 190 yıl önce özgün bir şekilde Puşkin tarafından yazımını içeren eser aslında Dostoyevski'nin eserlerinde de sıkça bahsedilen özgür düşüncenin o zamanların Rusyasında yasak oluşunun anlaşılması açısından da aydınlatıcı nitelik taşımakta. Yarım kalmış olması ise Puşkin'in bundan sonraki eserleri açısından perçinleyici bir görev görüyor. Bir hocamın dediği bir söz vardır : "En güzel buluşma yarım kalandır."
January 15, 2018
Un romanzo incompleto su suo nonno, il negro di Pietro il Grande, Abram Petrovič Gannibal (1696 – 14 maggio 1781). Confesso che ci sono restato a bocca larga (nella mia ignoranza non lo sapevo). Lode a Pietro, completamente libero da pregiudizi razziali. Forse etiope-eritreo, fu portato in Russia a Pietro il Grande, che lo adottò, ne fu padrino a battesimo e lo fece studiare in Francia. Divenne maggior generale del Genio militare, governatore di Reval e nobile dell'Impero Russo. Gannibal, da Hannibal, l'altro grande generale dell'Africa. Bello, ma rimasto incompleto, del 1827.
September 28, 2021
I really wish he'd finished writing this. I'd like to have seen whether Natasha's feelings toward Ibrahim changed and if Ibrahim's internalized self-hatred ever resolved itself.
July 2, 2018
Ακόμα και το ατελείωτο και δίχως επιμέλεια αυτό κείμενο του Πούσκιν, δείχνει την μεγαλοφυία του ποιητή. Πρόκειται για την ιστορία του προπάππου του, Ιμπραήμ Αννίβα: ενός μαύρου σκλάβου που αγοράστηκε από την Κωνσταντινούπολη από τον πρέσβη της Ρωσίας, τον παππού του συγγραφέα Τολστόι επί εποχής Μεγάλου Πέτρου. Ο τσάρος έστειλε τον Ιμπραήμ στην Γαλλία για σπουδές, όπου εκπαιδεύτηκε στην μηχανική και στα μαθηματικά και πολέμησε στο πλευρό των Γάλλων εναντίον των Ισπανών. Γυρίζοντας πίσω στην Ρωσία ο Ιμπραήμ εξελίχτηκε σε έναν από τους εκλεκτότερους υπασπιστές του τσάρου. Ο Μεγάλος Πέτρος, προοδευτικός και ευρωπαϊστής, με την συμπάθειά του στον Ιμπραήμ, ήθελε να αποδείξει σε όλους τους σλαβόφιλους και τους παλιούς αριστοκράτες, ότι ένας μαύρος αν εκπαιδευτεί σωστά έχει ακριβώς τις ίδιες πιθανότητες με έναν Ρώσο να γίνει μεγάλος και τρανός. Ο Ιμπραήμ παντρεύτηκε μια Ρωσίδα αριστοκράτισσα και μαζί της έκανε έντεκα παιδιά, διέπρεψε ως στρατηγός στον ρωσικό στρατό και πέθανε γαλήνια σε βαθιά γεράματα, μόλις λίγα χρόνια πριν την γέννηση του πασίγνωστου δισέγγονού του. Άφησε πίσω του δυο θαύματα: τον ποιητή Αλέξανδρο Πούσκιν και τα οχυρωματικά έργα της Βαλτικής που ήταν τόσο πετυχημένα και γερά που άντεξαν έως και τον Β Παγκόσμιο Πόλεμο.
November 23, 2017
Κοιτάω την οθόνη κάποια ώρα και σκέφτομαι τι πρέπει να γράψω, ή πώς να το εξηγήσω. Πρόκειται για ένα χειρόγραφο, ένα προσωπικό, ημιτελές, αχτένιστο, χειρόγραφο λίγων μόλις σελίδων, που γραφόταν σε ώρες σχόλης, στα όρια της απαντοχής για ένα κόσμο τύπων, δουλοκρατικό και άρα εξ’ ορισμού ρατσιστή, αλλοπρόσαλλο που ανάμεσα στα στάχυα ξεφύτρωναν ελάχιστες ορχιδέες σαν αδίστακτα, άκαμπτα, αρνούμενα να υποκύψουν ζιζάνια, απατηλός κόσμος ανάμεσα σε μια Παλινόρθωση και μια Ελληνική Επανάσταση, ανάμεσα στο Βύρωνα και τον Αλέξανδρο. Αυτό το χειρόγραφο, μα κι η ζωή όλη του Πούσκιν μου έφεραν στο νου ένα τραγούδι: Poets of the fall – Where do we draw the line. Μακάρι όλα τα σύγχρονα ημιτελή έργα να ήταν σα τη Λαμιέλ και το Νέγρο. Τώρα είδα από πού πήρε το Στιεπαντσίκοβο, το μπρίο του.
Σφραγίδα του Πούσκιν είναι η κατάσταση της ασημαντότητας, ανεξάρτητα που εδράζεται. Εδώ στον Ξεχωριστό Νέγρο που ποθεί την ομοιογένεια, τα κοινά χαρακτηριστικά, μα ποτέ! Την ίδια κονσερβαρισμένη συμπεριφορά κι αλλού… την ασημαντότητα της ύπαρξης ανθρώπων ευνοημένων, Περιττών όπως θα έγραφε ο μεγαλύτερος Ρώσος συγγραφέας. Εδώ ζητά εκείνο που δε σε ξεχωρίζει φανερά, δε σ’ ακολουθεί με τους ψίθυρους της αδιακρισίας, σαν ένας πολυέλαιος να σε φωτίζει, για όλους τους λάθος λόγους, να μη σ’ αφήνει να είσαι ανάμεσα στους άλλους, όπως είσαι με τον εαυτό σου.
Δεν καταφέρνει να περάσει τον έρωτα για την Κόμισσα Λ., δεν πείθει. Μα αυτό για το οποίο πείθει χωρίς τον παραμικρό κόπο, μόνο με απροσμέτρητη αγάπη, είναι για τη στοργή του Μεγάλου Πέτρου, που έχει διαποτίσει τις σελίδες εδώ και 180 χρόνια, για το Νέγρο, όσο και για τη διορατικότητα αυτού του τσάρου που ήταν τόσο ξεχωριστός όσο κι ο Νέγρος του. Ασυμβίβαστος, δαίμονας, πανέξυπνος, ανθρωπιστής, θετικιστής, προοδευτικός.
Οι παράπλευροι χαρακτήρες χρειάζονταν ένα με δυο τσικ για να μοιάσουν πιστευτοί, ρεαλιστικοί έστω, αλλά οι δυο κεντρικοί σχεδόν ζωντανεύουν. Ο Νέγρος με το πάθος, το άγχος, τη φλόγα του για το σημάδι του στη ζωή, καθησυχασμένος απ’ αγάπη του τσάρου, μα στερημένος απ’ αληθινά συναισθήματα απ’ οποιονδήποτε άλλο, κλεισμένος στις συμβάσεις, στον απόηχο ενός Παρισιού που έσβησαν οι ματαιοδοξίες του, μα όχι και τα αρώματα, το χρώμα που έβγαζε αυθεντικότητα κι ο έρωτας. Κι ο Πέτρος, περνάει με όλο του το νεύρο, την ειρωνεία, την αίσθηση δικαίου και την αγάπη για το βαφτισιμιό του. Κι ο κόσμος στις πιο ιλαρές στιγμές και στις πλέον βαρετές μαστίζεται απ’ τους ξενομανείς για όλα τα λάθος στοιχεία κι απ’ την άλλη απ’ το αραχνιασμένο παλαιό καθεστώς που λοιδορεί τους μαϊμουδισμούς και περιφρουρείται στην αλύγιστη απανθρωπιά του, που βάζει τον τύπο πάνω απ’ τον άνθρωπο.
Αν μόνο είχε ολοκληρωθεί…
3.5
Σφραγίδα του Πούσκιν είναι η κατάσταση της ασημαντότητας, ανεξάρτητα που εδράζεται. Εδώ στον Ξεχωριστό Νέγρο που ποθεί την ομοιογένεια, τα κοινά χαρακτηριστικά, μα ποτέ! Την ίδια κονσερβαρισμένη συμπεριφορά κι αλλού… την ασημαντότητα της ύπαρξης ανθρώπων ευνοημένων, Περιττών όπως θα έγραφε ο μεγαλύτερος Ρώσος συγγραφέας. Εδώ ζητά εκείνο που δε σε ξεχωρίζει φανερά, δε σ’ ακολουθεί με τους ψίθυρους της αδιακρισίας, σαν ένας πολυέλαιος να σε φωτίζει, για όλους τους λάθος λόγους, να μη σ’ αφήνει να είσαι ανάμεσα στους άλλους, όπως είσαι με τον εαυτό σου.
Δεν καταφέρνει να περάσει τον έρωτα για την Κόμισσα Λ., δεν πείθει. Μα αυτό για το οποίο πείθει χωρίς τον παραμικρό κόπο, μόνο με απροσμέτρητη αγάπη, είναι για τη στοργή του Μεγάλου Πέτρου, που έχει διαποτίσει τις σελίδες εδώ και 180 χρόνια, για το Νέγρο, όσο και για τη διορατικότητα αυτού του τσάρου που ήταν τόσο ξεχωριστός όσο κι ο Νέγρος του. Ασυμβίβαστος, δαίμονας, πανέξυπνος, ανθρωπιστής, θετικιστής, προοδευτικός.
Οι παράπλευροι χαρακτήρες χρειάζονταν ένα με δυο τσικ για να μοιάσουν πιστευτοί, ρεαλιστικοί έστω, αλλά οι δυο κεντρικοί σχεδόν ζωντανεύουν. Ο Νέγρος με το πάθος, το άγχος, τη φλόγα του για το σημάδι του στη ζωή, καθησυχασμένος απ’ αγάπη του τσάρου, μα στερημένος απ’ αληθινά συναισθήματα απ’ οποιονδήποτε άλλο, κλεισμένος στις συμβάσεις, στον απόηχο ενός Παρισιού που έσβησαν οι ματαιοδοξίες του, μα όχι και τα αρώματα, το χρώμα που έβγαζε αυθεντικότητα κι ο έρωτας. Κι ο Πέτρος, περνάει με όλο του το νεύρο, την ειρωνεία, την αίσθηση δικαίου και την αγάπη για το βαφτισιμιό του. Κι ο κόσμος στις πιο ιλαρές στιγμές και στις πλέον βαρετές μαστίζεται απ’ τους ξενομανείς για όλα τα λάθος στοιχεία κι απ’ την άλλη απ’ το αραχνιασμένο παλαιό καθεστώς που λοιδορεί τους μαϊμουδισμούς και περιφρουρείται στην αλύγιστη απανθρωπιά του, που βάζει τον τύπο πάνω απ’ τον άνθρωπο.
Αν μόνο είχε ολοκληρωθεί…
3.5
October 16, 2017
*Read for class.
Are you kidding me? I knew it was unfinished, but I thought it had a further developed plot. I hoped to find out more, cause I liked it quite a bit. Goddammit, Pushkin! Again!
Are you kidding me? I knew it was unfinished, but I thought it had a further developed plot. I hoped to find out more, cause I liked it quite a bit. Goddammit, Pushkin! Again!
August 19, 2021
pushkin is always great, but wow i'm glad i was born in today's times
April 3, 2024
Read this when I was 16, at the beginning of my "Russian period". Great stories.
April 2, 2017
Too bad it was never finished, it was pretty good.
June 14, 2019
I loved reading it!!! An excellent book!!!
May 9, 2022
this dude make me wanna learn russian
November 15, 2019
Δυστυχως ενα βιβλιο που δεν ολοκληρωθηκε ποτε λογω του θανατου του συγγραφεα μας δινει πληροφοριες για τηΡωσια του Μεγαλου Πετρου κ τον προπαππο του μεγαλου ποιητη
May 17, 2020
Tamamlanmamış bir kitap olması üzücü. Yine de çok beğendim.
October 19, 2021
Interesting but in a historical context only; otherwise I wouldn't have chosen to read this.
November 28, 2025
Nou extreem goed geschreven en boeiende opzet, maar helaas nooit afgemaakt, dus na een mooi begin houdt het op... :(
Read
October 18, 2018Решила, что нечестно ставить оценку незавершённой повести.
November 5, 2007
Pushkin didn’t finish this short story that was based on his grandfather. He was very close to Peter the Great.
November 18, 2016
Another story of tyranny.. & people accommodating to it.
July 22, 2017
An interesting story of an African (a blackamoor) living and respected in Russian society.
July 1, 2022
someone write a fanonian analysis of this quick
September 2, 2023
When I saw Pushkin’s name on this, it was very familiar of course, but I couldn’t remember reading anything by him. Come to find out, he may be the Father of Russian Literature, but he’s a poet, and I mostly do novels. But the familiar feeling I was getting was because he was also the go-to source for the Russian romantic composers, a genre I have always loved. Ruslan and Lyudmila? Overture by Glinka. Eugene Onegin? An opera by Tchaikovsky, best known for its waltz. Boris Godunov? That massive bear of an opera by Mussorgsky. And so many more. So I was curious to see what his “Experiments in Prose” were like but. . .
The verdict is, wow, so uneven. As far as I can see, the poor lad just couldn’t stick the landing. For example, the first story, Peter the Great’s African, is the true life story of his great grandparents. Ibrahim, a former African slave, became a protégé of Peter the Great, who quickly recognized his potential. He was soon sent to Paris, to be taught Western mores, and the ladies instantly realized this guy was hawwt (fanning themselves). He fell in mutual love with a wealthy countess, who couldn’t believe her luck, and they were all set to marry, when bam. Peter wanted him back in Moscow. Well, he owes everything to Peter, so back he went. Then Peter gets a bee in his bonnet about Ibrahim needing a bride, and he knows just who. A delicately raised aristocratic lass, from a wealthy family, what could go wrong? But apparently nobody gave this girl a heads up, and upon meeting her husband-to-be, she faints dead away. And that’s it! What, you going to leave us hanging? We know you are their great-grandson, Pushkin, so don’t try and play the innocent. Did they actually fall in love down the road? Did she just close her eyes and think of Mother Russia? Don’t leave us hanging!
There were a few other stories, but they had the same issue. Great start, and then fizzle. Alas, in the end, unsatisfying. The Father of Russian Literature, maybe, but I would have argued for a novelist. Gogol, maybe?
The verdict is, wow, so uneven. As far as I can see, the poor lad just couldn’t stick the landing. For example, the first story, Peter the Great’s African, is the true life story of his great grandparents. Ibrahim, a former African slave, became a protégé of Peter the Great, who quickly recognized his potential. He was soon sent to Paris, to be taught Western mores, and the ladies instantly realized this guy was hawwt (fanning themselves). He fell in mutual love with a wealthy countess, who couldn’t believe her luck, and they were all set to marry, when bam. Peter wanted him back in Moscow. Well, he owes everything to Peter, so back he went. Then Peter gets a bee in his bonnet about Ibrahim needing a bride, and he knows just who. A delicately raised aristocratic lass, from a wealthy family, what could go wrong? But apparently nobody gave this girl a heads up, and upon meeting her husband-to-be, she faints dead away. And that’s it! What, you going to leave us hanging? We know you are their great-grandson, Pushkin, so don’t try and play the innocent. Did they actually fall in love down the road? Did she just close her eyes and think of Mother Russia? Don’t leave us hanging!
There were a few other stories, but they had the same issue. Great start, and then fizzle. Alas, in the end, unsatisfying. The Father of Russian Literature, maybe, but I would have argued for a novelist. Gogol, maybe?
February 26, 2023
This was the April 2022 New York Review Book (NYRB) Classic selection. It’s a four part collection of unfinished prose by Russia’s greatest poet, Alexander Pushkin. He is also the “author of the first major works in a variety of genres.” Surprisingly, the prose for being written in the second two decades of the 19th C, is easy to read and engaging. The first prose selection, Peter the Great’s African, is Pushkin’s first attempt at a novel and the character of Ibrahim is based on one of his great grandfathers, Abram Gannibel, an African slave who was adopted by Peter the Great. The story presents a contrast between French and Russian cultures when Ibrahim returns to a Russia from a sojourn in France as a student. We see how Ibrahim is viewed in both these “white” cultures where while embraced he is but more of a curious oddity than a human. I enjoyed this selection and wished it had been finished. I also especially liked Dubrovsky which is a tale of greed, petty grievances and a dashing robber who disguises himself as a French tutor to get back at the man who stole his inheritance and killed his father thereby. This too I would have wished it would have been completed because it offered so much in revealing the vagaries of the Russian nobility and peasant life. The short story about the village of Goriukhino offers a picture of how Russian nobility treated the serfs in the villages owned by them - not very well! The final installment, Egyptian Nights, is a mixture of prose and poetry. As stated in the Afterword, the prose sections “represent a reworking of a theme - the ‘Cleopatra of the Neva - that had long preoccupied Pushkin.” The story presents a contrast between the character of Charsky and the improvvisatore - “the interdependency of poise and awkwardness.” It is by far the most complex of the stories in its cleverness and beautiful poetry. This was an enjoyable read.
February 3, 2018
Марья Ильинична сидела как на иголках; язык у нее так и свербел; наконец она не вытерпела и, обратясь к мужу, спросила его с кисленькой улыбкою, что находит он дурного в ассамблеях?
— А то в них дурно, — отвечал разгоряченный супруг, — что с тех пор, как они завелись, мужья не сладят с женами. Жены позабыли слово апостольское: жена да убоится своего мужа; хлопочут не о хозяйстве, а об обновах; не думают, как бы мужу угодить, а как бы приглянуться офицерам-вертопрахам. Да и прилично ли, сударыня, русской боярыне или боярышне находиться вместе с немцами-табачниками да с их работницами? Слыхано ли дело, до ночи плясать и разговаривать с молодыми мужчинами? и добро бы еще с родственниками, а то с чужими, с незнакомыми.
— Сказал бы словечко, да волк недалечко, — сказал, нахмурясь, Гаврила Афанасьевич. — А признаюсь — ассамблеи и мне не по нраву: того и гляди, что на пьяного натолкнешься, аль и самого на смех пьяным напоят. Того и гляди, чтоб какой-нибудь повеса не напроказил чего с дочерью; а нынче молодежь так избаловалась, что ни на что не похоже. Вот, например, сын покойного Евграфа Сергеевича Корсакова на прошедшей ассамблее наделал такого шуму с Наташей, что привел меня в краску.
— А то в них дурно, — отвечал разгоряченный супруг, — что с тех пор, как они завелись, мужья не сладят с женами. Жены позабыли слово апостольское: жена да убоится своего мужа; хлопочут не о хозяйстве, а об обновах; не думают, как бы мужу угодить, а как бы приглянуться офицерам-вертопрахам. Да и прилично ли, сударыня, русской боярыне или боярышне находиться вместе с немцами-табачниками да с их работницами? Слыхано ли дело, до ночи плясать и разговаривать с молодыми мужчинами? и добро бы еще с родственниками, а то с чужими, с незнакомыми.
— Сказал бы словечко, да волк недалечко, — сказал, нахмурясь, Гаврила Афанасьевич. — А признаюсь — ассамблеи и мне не по нраву: того и гляди, что на пьяного натолкнешься, аль и самого на смех пьяным напоят. Того и гляди, чтоб какой-нибудь повеса не напроказил чего с дочерью; а нынче молодежь так избаловалась, что ни на что не похоже. Вот, например, сын покойного Евграфа Сергеевича Корсакова на прошедшей ассамблее наделал такого шуму с Наташей, что привел меня в краску.
August 6, 2020
После "Повестей Белкина" - это с неизвестной целью опубликованная однажды и продолжающая публиковаться "дармовщинка", имеющая к "возвышению предков" отношение такое же, как к второму тому "Мёртвых душ". "Эфиоп" Бориса Штерна - вот, в какую книженцию следовало бы заглядывать в поисках "Арапа Петра Великого".
С другой стороны, данный "роман" вполне может оказаться юмористическим произведением в стилистике начала предшествующего века, а низкая оценка при данной рецензии является лишним доказательством невежества её автора.
Принципиальный же тезис остаётся в том, что "Арапу Петра Великого", следуя представленному у Александра Сергеевича характеру, вовсе необязательно быть "арапом", чтобы какая угодно Наталья, прознав о сватовстве, занемогла.
С другой стороны, данный "роман" вполне может оказаться юмористическим произведением в стилистике начала предшествующего века, а низкая оценка при данной рецензии является лишним доказательством невежества её автора.
Принципиальный же тезис остаётся в том, что "Арапу Петра Великого", следуя представленному у Александра Сергеевича характеру, вовсе необязательно быть "арапом", чтобы какая угодно Наталья, прознав о сватовстве, занемогла.
November 7, 2017
Предков нужно возвышать! Какими бы они не прославились делами — задачей потомков становится грамотная интерпретация прежде происходивших событий. Например, прадед Александра Пушкина имел уникальную судьбу для подданного Российского государства, так как происходил из африканских земель. Но как вёл себя сей прадед? Если не воспринимать в радужных оттенках сообщаемую о нём информацию, то окажется он человеком с сомнительной репутацией. Может потому и не стал писать о нём Пушкин дальше, ибо требовалось создавать преграды на его пути, всегда непременно связанные с происхождением.
(c) Trounin
(c) Trounin
August 7, 2022
Sketches include "Peter the Great's African," a biographical piece on Pushkin's ancestor that has been published before under slightly different titles; "History of the Village of Goriukhino," a parody on the study of history; "Dubrovsky," a Robin Hood-like novella based on Pushkin's family finances and legal problems; "Egyptian Nights" on the poet's place in society.
An April 2022 selection of NYRB Classics.
An April 2022 selection of NYRB Classics.
May 10, 2025
Yarım bırakılmış bir kitap olduğunu bilmeden okudum. En çok saran, heyecanlandıran yerde kalmış olması beni üzdü. Çar’ın Paris’ten dönen Arab’ını evlendirmeye niyetlenmesi, ama Arap olduğu ve Nataşa da başka birini sevdiği için soru işaretleri olan yerde kaldı kitap. Acaba Arap sevdirecek miydi kendini, neler olacaktı, Arab’ın Paris’teki sevgili kontes ve oğlu hikayeye nerede dahil olacaklardı puşkinin hayalinde?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 30, 2024
A story about a "stranger in a strange land" - arab in a 17-18th century Europe and Russian Empire. Thee story wasn't finished, and it filled like it had not been planned to be. It lacks emotion and intellectually it could had been adjusted to be read by young audience.
Not worth spending time on.
Not worth spending time on.
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