Kotik Letaev - Softcover

Belyi, Andrei

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0882330063 ISBN 13: 9780882330068

Publisher: Ardis, 1971

Synopsis

One of the most important works of twentieth-century Russian prose, Kotik Letaev, the great symbolist novel of childhood, depicts the emergence of consciousness and its development into self-consciousness in a Russian boy growing up among the Moscow intelligentsia in the 1800s.

Kotik's experience is based on elements from Bely's own early childhood, but on a larger level his experience represents the stages of human history, the history of philosophy, and childhood language development. The story, seen through the eyes of a child from the age of three to five years, is told in complex, poetically developed adult language, rich in imagery and musical sound effects.

About this title

About the Author

Andrei Bely (the pseudonym of Boris Nikolayevich Bugaev, 1880-1934) was a leading theorist and poet of Russian symbolism, associated with Moscow's literary elite during the prerevolutionary period. In 1913 he became an adherent of Rudolf Steiner in Switzerland, where he began writing Kotik Letaev (first published in 1917-18). He returned to Russia for good in 1923. His development of new writing techniques, especially in his most celebrated composition, Petersburg, significantly affected later Russian prose and verse style.

Gerald J. Janecek is a professor of Russian at the University of Kentucky and the author or editor of several other books by or about Andrei Bely.

Reviews

Kotik Letaev ($17.95 paperback original; Jun.; 288 pp.; 0-8101-1626-X): A generously annotated revised version of Janecek's 1971 translation of the famous Joycean autobiographical novel (191718) by the pseudonymous Russian symbolist poet (Boris Bugaev, 18801934), best known for his explosively comic modernist novel Petersburg (1970). Kotik Letaev is a radically different work: a meticulous, mellifluous rendering of its eponymous narrator's early childhood; a rich array of sensory impressions that cohere as Kotik's half-comprehending observations of his indulgent parents' incompatibility, and also as Bely's complex dramatization of the quasi-Platonic principles of Rudolf Steiner's once-famous doctrine of anthroposophy. Intricate, demanding, ultimately very rewarding fiction from one of the most accomplished and intriguing of all Russian writers. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

While many people would be hard-pressed to remember what they ate for lunch, the late Russian writer Bely (pseudonym for Boris Nikolayevich Bugaev, 1880-1934) wrote a semi-autobiographical work focusing entirely on the experience of being between the ages of three and five. The book's earliest appearances can be traced to 1917 in Russia, and it preceded Bely's most celebrated novel, Petersburg. The author was heavily influenced by the Austrian social philosopher Rudolf Steiner, and time spent at a spiritual colony with Steiner made its mark on Bely, himself one of Russia's leading theorists and Symbolist poets. This novel explores the idea that infants are not newborns but part of a universal sea of consciousness, and because the protagonist, toddler Kotik, does not yet have the language to share his memories of this sea, they become increasingly vague as the child develops. Bely voices this struggle in luminously esoteric and poetic prose, and the effect ranges from terrifying to hysterical. It's both amusing and depressing to watch Kotik's bubbling and fiery world narrow into dull routine. Bely writes, "... a little plate of semolina cereal was eaten up by me; andAI was all messy (Nanny begins to grumble at me: she wipes me off). I feel a little sad and empty... Athere are no events; that is, there is nothing anymore; but... the cereal... was eaten up... by me; I ate itAon routine weekdays; I ate it up: andAthe same boring weekdays; I feel like crying;... " The book was first translated into English by Janecek in 1971. In this edition Janecek corrects several mistranslations and provides useful, lengthy annotations, a new introduction based on additional scholarship and a bibliography of relevant critical literature. (June)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Ardis
• Publication date: 1971
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0882330063
• ISBN 13: 9780882330068
• Binding: Paperback