Double Life

An unsung classic of nineteenth-century Russian literature, Karolina Pavlova's A Double Life alternates prose and poetry to offer a wry picture of Russian aristocratic society and vivid dreams of escaping its strictures. Pavlova combines rich narrative prose that details balls, tea parties, and horseback rides with poetic interludes that depict her protagonist's inner world--and biting irony that pervades a seemingly romantic description of a young woman who has everything.

List of contents

Introduction by Barbara Heldt
A Double Life
Afterword

About the author

Karolina Pavlova, born Karolina Jaenisch in 1807, was a Russian poet and translator and presided over a famous Moscow literary salon. She died in Dresden in 1893, having abandoned Russia not because of tsarist oppression but because of hostile criticism of her poetry and her personal life. A Double Life is her major work.

Barbara Heldt is professor emerita of Russian at the University of British Columbia. Her books include Koz’ma Prutkov: The Art of Parody (1973) and Terrible Perfection: Women and Russian Literature (1987).

Summary

An unsung classic of nineteenth-century Russian literature, Karolina Pavlova’s A Double Life alternates prose and poetry to offer a wry picture of Russian aristocratic society and vivid dreams of escaping its strictures.

Additional text

[An] unsurpassable translation . . . [Heldt] is deeply informed about the novel and its context, and this edition includes her original introduction. She is also a wonderful stylist and brings a fine sense of tone and rhythm to her translation of Pavlova.

Product details

• Authors: Daniel Green, Barbara Heldt, Karolina Pavlova
• Assisted by: Daniel Green (Afterword), Green Daniel (Afterword), Barbara Heldt (Translation), Professor Barbara Heldt (Translation), Heldt Barbara (Translation)
• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 28.02.2019
• EAN: 9780231190794
• ISBN: 978-0-231-19079-4
• No. of pages: 176
• Series: Russian Library; Russian Library
• Subjects: Fiction > Poetry, drama; Non-fiction book > Music, film, theatre; Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945), Russia, FICTION / Literary, POETRY / General, Poetry, FICTION / Anthologies (multiple authors), Anthologies: general, Fiction: general and literary, Anthologies (non-poetry), USSR, Soviet Union