Dear Irina, When Isolde (2019, tr. Bryan Karetnyk and Irina Steinberg. Original: Изольда, 1929) opens, it’s summer, sometime in the wild 1920’s, and we are in Biarritz.…… Read more “Her heart is this red apple”
Tag: Russia
In the transparent silence of night,
Six poems by Irina Odoevtseva: three from the collection A Russian cultural revival: a critical anthology of émigré literature before 1939, edited and translated by Temira Pachmuss…… Read more “In the transparent silence of night,”
Irina Odoevtseva
Irina Vladimirovna Odoevtseva (Ирина Влади′мировна Одо′евцева, pen name of Ираида Густавовна Гейнике – Iraida Gustavovna Geinike. Latvian: Iraida Heinike. 15 June 1895 – 14 October 1990) was…… Read more “Irina Odoevtseva”
Classic Russian Women Authors in Translation
Hi, folks! Here I am again with another list of classics by women – this time, the Russians! There is nothing like making a reading list to…… Read more “Classic Russian Women Authors in Translation”
And she listened to the pounding of her heart
Dear Lydia, From the beginning, we already know that we are in for a train wreck with Sofia Petrovna (1994, translated by Aline Worth, emended by Eliza…… Read more “And she listened to the pounding of her heart”
Lydia Chukovskaya
Lydia Chukovskaya (Lydia Korneyevna Chukovskaya/ Ли́дия Корне́евна Чуко́вская, 24 March 1907 – February 8, 1996) was a Russian writer. Born in Helsingfors (now Helsinki), which was then…… Read more “Lydia Chukovskaya”
She was completely engrossed in a single thought
Dear Sofia, Nihilist Girl, tr. Natasha Kolchevska and Mary Zirin (2001. Original: Нигилистка, 1884) reads like a tale with a void inside, wrapped-up in a blue-tinged layer of melancholy: at its…… Read more “She was completely engrossed in a single thought”
Sofia Kovalevskaya
Sofia Vasilyevna Kovalevskaya (Со́фья Васи́льевна Ковале́вская, also known as Sophie Kowalevski; neé Sofia Vasilyevna Korvin-Krukovskaya, 15 January 1850 – 10 February 1891) was a Russian mathematician and author. She was educated at…… Read more “Sofia Kovalevskaya”
I don’t want them to reward me for nonsense
Dear Nadezhda, The Boarding-School Girl, tr. Karen Rosneck (2000. Original: Пансионерка, 1861), very much like your sister’s novel City Folk and Country Folk, tr. Nora Seligman Favorov (2017.…… Read more “I don’t want them to reward me for nonsense”
Nadezhda Khvoshchinskaya
Nadezhda Khvoshchinskaya (Nadezhda Dmitryevna Khvoshchinskaya/ Надежда Дмитриевна Хвощинская, May 20, 1824 – June 8, 1889), was a Russian writer. Nadezhda received most of their education at home from private…… Read more “Nadezhda Khvoshchinskaya”
We don’t have the more refined illnesses here
Dear Sofia, Reading your novel City Folk and Country Folk, translated by Nora Seligman Favorov (Городские и деревенские, 1863), feels like following a deceptively simple pattern with…… Read more “We don’t have the more refined illnesses here”
Sofia Khvoshchinskaya
Sofia Khvoshchinskaya (Софья Дмитриевна Хвощинская, 1824–1865) was a Russian writer, translator and painter. She studied at St. Catherine Moscow Institute. Sofia published fiction and social commentary, and wrote under…… Read more “Sofia Khvoshchinskaya”