Aleksandr Blok: A Life - Hardcover

Berberova, Nina

3.78

27 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0807614084 ISBN 13: 9780807614082

Publisher: George Braziller Inc., 1996

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

Aleksandr Blok (1880-1921), the leader of the Symbolist Movement, was one of Russia's greatest modern poets. An inspiration to many modern Russian poets well-known in the West, most notably Pasternak, this account of his life is one of the few books on this important poet available in English. A member of the Russian aristocracy, Blok lived through a period in which a traditional world was being destroyed and a new, often alarming utopia was emerging. After years of expressing disdain for politics, he became an enthusiastic supporter of the Revolution, changing from a detached observer to a committed servant of the Russian people. This change is reflected in the shift in his work away from his early poetic mysticism to the historical vision of his most famous poem, The Twelve. This account of his life and his art, written by the novelist and autobiographer Nina Berberova, evokes the troubled world of the Russian intelligentsia, their illusions, and their disarray in the face of revolution. Blok's complicated emotional life, his passion for his art, and his public stature are conveyed with economy, elegance, and deep understanding.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author:

Nina Nikolaevena Berberova (1901-1993) was born in St. Petersburg. She left Russia after the revolution in 1922, eventually settling in Paris in 1925 with her lover Vladislav Khodasevich. She moved to the U.S. in 1950 and taught at Yale and Princeton. In France she was honored as a Chevalier of the French Order of Arts and Letters.

From Kirkus Reviews:

Berberova's elegant and uncommon biography of the Russian poet Blok defies easy categorization and is a literary event in its own right. Aleksandr Blok (18801921) was a leader of the Russian Symbolists at the turn of the century and ranks among the greatest modern Russian poets. Of particular interest are Blok's artistic and personal reactions to the revolutionary changes in Russian politics and society during his lifetime: his shift from poetic mysticism to a perception of life deeply colored by historical forces, and his astute predictions about Russia's bloody future. A major English-language biography, Avril Pyman's Life of Aleksandr Blok, appeared in 1979, and readers of his poetry who seek details of the life should still turn to that earlier work. Those more interested in the fin-de-siŠcle and revolutionary settings of Blok's creative genius will be well served by this new work. Berberova's essay is as much a portrait of Russian society as it is a story of Blok himself, and in the author's deft hand the two are palpably, convincingly linked. Part of the appeal of this biography is the author's lyrical and highly personal, empathetic voice. Berberova, who died in 1993, was both a professor of Russian literature at Princeton and the author of fiction and an autobiography (The Tattered Cloak, 1991, etc.). She lived until the age of 20 in Blok's St. Petersburg and moved in similar literary circles. As she poignantly relates here, Berberova was present at Blok's deathbed, and she offers a heartfelt interpretation of the poet's death: ``We all felt it was the and of a life, the end of a city, the end of a world.'' Soon after his death, she fled Russia. Aleksandr Blok: A Life is Berberova's profoundly moving posthumous homage to a poet, a city, and an era she knew intimately. -- Copyright �1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.