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Küchlya
(1925), the first novel of the great Russian formalist Yury Tynyanov gives
us a vividly written and moving recreation of the childhood, youth, beliefs and
adventures of an eccentric and idealistic young poet and friend of Pushkin,
tragically caught up in the Decembrist insurrection of 1825 against the Russian
autocracy.
List of contents
Table of ContentsIntroduction
The Characters
Küchlya: Decembrist Poet: A NovelWillie
The Bechelkückeriad
Europe
Caucasus
In the Country
Sons of the Fatherland
December
Peter¿s Square
Escape
Fortress
The End
Some Poems by Wilhelm Küchelbecker
Endnotes
About the author
Yuri Tynianov (1894-1943) was a Russian writer and literary theorist, and a central figure among the revolutionary-era scholars who came to be known as the Russian Formalists.
Anna Kurkina Rush taught Russian at George Watson¿s College (Edinburgh) and the University of St Andrews of which she holds a doctorate. Together with Christopher Rush she translated Tynyanov¿s novel
Pushkin (2007) and
The Death of Vazir-Mukhtar (Columbia UP, 2021). She is currently working on a monograph about representation of Pushkin in Tynyanov¿s historical novels.
Peter France, who lives in Edinburgh, is the author and editor of many books on Russian, French and comparative literature, including
Poets of Modern Russia (1982) and the
Oxford Guide to Literature in English Translation (2000)
. He has translated numerous volumes of Russian poetry, from Baratynsky and Batyushkov to Mandelstam and Aygi.
Christopher Rush is the author of 25 critically acclaimed books in various genres: poetry, prose fiction, biography, besides his work as editor, memoirist, screenplay writer and writer of academic and literary essays.
Summary
The poet Wilhelm Küchelbecker, Pushkin's school-friend, suffered twenty years of imprisonment and Siberian exile for his part in the ill-fated Decembrist rising of 1825 against the Russian autocracy. His largely forgotten life and work are vividly recreated in Küchlya (1925), a pioneering historical novel by Yury Tynyanov.
