Other Worlds Peasants, Pilgrims, Spirits, Saints
Produktdetaljer
Biographical note
Teffi was a phenomenally popular writer in pre-revolutionary Russia - a favourite of Tsar Nicholas II and Vladimir Lenin alike. She was born in 1872 into a prominent St Petersburg family and emigrated from Bolshevik Russia in 1919. She eventually settled in Paris, where she became an important figure in the émigré literary scene, and where she lived until her death in 1952. A master of the short form, in her lifetime Teffi published countless stories, plays and feuilletons. After her death, she was gradually forgotten, but the collapse of the Soviet Union brought about her rediscovery by Russian readers. Pushkin Press also publishes Subtly Worded, Rasputin and Other Ironies and Memories: From Moscow to the Black Sea.The stories in Other Worlds conjure a vanished Russia... Other Worlds is a magnificent edition of the works of a writer who deserves her seat at the top table of Russian authors
- Sara Wheeler, Wall Street Journal
Teffi reimagines old Russian wonder tales with an inimitable blend of ingenuousness, slyness, and mischief... This is a hugely enjoyable and surprising collection, and Teffi's lively and confiding voice can be heard rising from the page with irresistible immediacy
- Marina Warner, author of 'From the Beast to the Blonde',
Teffi is one of the great writers of early 20th century Russia, from Nicholas II's reign to the Revolution afterwards. Her writing, whether stories or reportage or memoir is witty, elegant, fantastical, yet sharp and acute and playful. Pushkin Press has done literature a service by rediscovering and publishing Teffi's brilliant works
- Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of 'The Romanovs',
The translucent surface of her writing gives sight of the depths of the human spirit: its raging and yearning, its dark nights and joyous awakenings, its wild cries, its anarchic craziness
New York Review of Books
Heartbreaking as well as very funny. I wish she were still alive, and I could have met her... I can't recommend her strongly enough
- Nicholas Lezard, Guardian
Conceived as a gathering of Teffi's stories featuring witches, shapeshifters, mermaids, vampires... the book stands as a masterwork of high non-reductive psychological realism worthy of Henry James
LA Review of Books
Pushkin Press deserves our thanks for bringing Teffi to a much wider audience
Spectator
[Teffi's work is] amazingly modern, as easy to devour as, well, a box of chocolates
Observer
One of the great twentieth-century writers. At their best her short stories are to my mind the equal of Chekhov's
- John Gray,
Teffi's brilliance at capturing the dark comedy of her milieu should no longer prevent her from being recognised as an important European writer
TLS
Teffi's ostro-úmye, her sharp intelligence, gives every story an undertone of wisdom... Her subtlety is handled with great sensitivity and grace by Robert Chandler and all the translators who crafted this English version. The language sounds like a seamless extension of the original Russian; everything is conveyed so faithfully to the spirit of the writings that we are not just easily immersed into that world, we end up feeling at home in it
European Literature Network