The Symphonies (Russian Library)

Product Description Andrei Bely is best known for the modernist masterwork Petersburg, a paradigmatic example of how modern writers strove to evoke the fragmentation of language, narrative, and consciousness. In the early twentieth century, Bely embarked on his life as an artist with texts he called “symphonies”―works experimenting with genre and sound, written in a style that shifts among prosaic, poetic, and musical. This book presents Bely’s four Symphonies―“Dramatic Symphony,” “Northern Symphony,” “The Return,” and “Goblet of Blizzards”―fantastically strange stories that capture the banality of life, the intimacy of love, and the enchantment of art.The Symphonies are quintessential works of modernist innovation in which Bely developed an evocative mythology and distinctive aesthetics. Influenced by Russian Symbolism, Bely believed that the role of modern artists was to imbue seemingly small details with cosmic significance. The Symphonies depict the drabness of daily life with distinct irony and satire―and then soar out of turn-of-the-century Moscow into the realm of the infinite and eternal. They conjure worlds that resemble our own but reveal elements of artifice and magic, hinting at mystical truths and the complete transfiguration of life. Showcasing the protean quality of Bely’s language and storytelling, Jonathan Stone’s translation of the Symphonies features some of the most captivating and beguiling writing of Russia’s Silver Age. Review Intermodal art was central to Russian Symbolism, but Bely’s four Symphonies resist easy definition. Rhythmic, motivic, visionary, commingling mundane matter with elevated spirit and shot through with satire, they relay Bely’s sense of symphonic music as a linkage of levels and moods. Jonathan Stone’s exquisite translation suspends the reader between the real and the more real. -- Caryl Emerson, author of The Cambridge Introduction to Russian LiteratureThe richly saturated prose of Bely’s innovative Symphonies demands an effective translation. Jonathan Stone has made a scrupulous, powerful version that conveys the work’s mythological complexity and the hypnotic effect of its verbal and musical texture. An essential book for study of the Symbolists. -- Sibelan Forrester, translator of The Russian FolktaleThose who read Stone’s introduction and translation with care will come away with an understanding that will enable them to appreciate what Bely is undertaking in the Symphonies, even as they work through the profusion of imagery and the fragmentary structure of these writings. There are very few works that compete with this volume in any way. -- Barry Scherr, Dartmouth College[A] Symbolist masterpiece by the writer whose work Vladimir Nabokov ranked among Russia’s greatest literary achievements . . . Otherworldly tales of haunting beauty and a welcome addition to the canon of classic Russian literature in English. ― Kirkus Reviews, starred reviewThe four works are all worthwhile in their own right but are, of course, interesting both for showing us the Bely the Symbolist in full flight but also showing us the writer of Петербург (Petersburg) in his early days. -- John Alvey ― The Modern NovelStone’s translation reads convincingly throughout, giving as good a sense as is probably achievable in English of what Bely was trying to do. It’s a tremendous achievement. -- Steve Dodson ― Language HatEncountering The Symphonies in Jonathan Stone’s sensitive renderings, one is struck anew by their daring innovation, which seems as fresh today as it did more than a century ago. As this handsome new edition demonstrates, Bely has outlived the fashions of later years: his works remain 'turned towards the future', their exuberance and brisk pace still urging readers on. -- Bryan Karetnyk ― Times Literary Supplement[A] sensitive and resourceful translation by Jonathan Stone . . . Collectively, The Symphonies offer a glimpse into the cradle of Bely’s art: less fully achieved than his