My Talisman: The Poetry & Life of Alexander Pushkin (English and Russian Edition) - Softcover

Julian Henry Lowenfeld

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0974872016 ISBN 13: 9780974872018

Publisher: Green Lamp Press, 2010

Synopsis

As Shakespeare is the quintessential poet of the English language, Goethe is the national bard of Germany, and Dante is the national poet of Italy, so Pushkin is the quintessential expression of the famously unique Russian soul, universally beloved by Russians for over 200 years as the sunshine of Russian poetry. Pushkin is at the very heart of Russian culture. Gogol, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Chekhov, and Nabokov, (the Russian literary geniuses best known in the West) all have revered Pushkin and acknowledged themselves his literary heirs. To Gogol, Pushkin was an extraordinary phenomenon, perhaps the only true expression of the essential Russian spirit ; to Dostoyevsky, Pushkin was the height of artistic perfection. Tolstoy praised Chekhov by calling him Pushkin in prose and urged young writers: read and re-read Pushkin! For Russian poets, a deep devotion to Pushkin is something almost akin to religion. Pushkin is the Prophet of Russian literature; countless phrases of his have entered the Russian language as Shakespeare s phrases permeate English. Yet, while Russians revere Pushkin as English-speakers do Shakespeare, the West knows Pushkin far less well than it knows his literary heirs. The incomparable mastery of Pushkin s verse has eluded translation, because few English-speaking poets have mastered Russian well enough to convey him with proper feeling. Yet Pushkin (who was also indisputably the most colorful and romantic figure in Russian literary history) was also by far the most Western and European of all great Russian writers. His works resonate with universal significance, for they eschew nationalism, religious preaching, and doctrine, and instead stress universal values such as love, joy, freedom, honor, and the preciousness of life, values that are as timelessly relevant and potent in 21st century America as they were in 19th century Russia. My Talisman, The Life and Poetry of Alexander Pushkin brings the joy of Russia s national bard to English-speakers. In a dual-language edition, handy for academic use, as well as for bilingual households, it contains over 120 of the most beloved poems of Alexander Pushkin, illustrated by approximately 180 of the poet's own beautiful, extremely vivid drawings. The book also contains extensive excerpts from the universally acknowledged crown jewel of Russian literature, Eugene Onegin, Pushkin s magnificent novel in verse, and a complete biography of the poet, whose life is a thrilling tale in its own right. He was at once of ancient Russian aristocratic lineage and the son of six ethnic groups (most famously, on his mother s side he was the great-grandson of a black slave kidnapped from Cameroon). He withstood neglect and abuse in childhood, deliberate ostracism, poverty, debt, two exiles, house arrests, constant censorship, controls and spying to inspire an entire nation s yearnings for freedom. Many friends were executed or exiled to Siberia; he barely escaped the scaffold himself. He experienced droughts, plagues, locusts, wars, duels, passionate love affairs and scandals, sandstorms, blizzards, ocean hurricanes...and worse than any weather the enmity or troublesome amity throughout his life of the Tsars. And yet, he resolutely, defiantly dared to be free, to be happy, to laugh, to love and to create.

About this title

About the Author

Reverence for Russian Literature runs deep in Julian Lowenfeld's family. His great-grandfater, Raphael Lowenfeld, St. Petersburg correspondent for the newspaper Berliner Tagesblatt, was the first translator of Leo Tolstoy's works into German, and the author and editor of Conversations with and about Tolstoy, a literary interview/biography of the novelist. He also founded Berlin's celebrated Schiller Theater. About 100 years later Julian began studying Russian literature at Harvard University. He wrote his honors thesis on Andrey Bely's masterpiece, Petersburg, under the direction of Professor Donald Fanger, and then studied Russian literature at Leningrad State University and continues his studies today with noticed Puskin scholar Nadyezhda Braginskaya. A graduate of New York University School of Law, he is a practicing trial lawyer in New York City, specializing in Federal cases and the defense of intellectual property. Other recent works include a full-length musical play, Thanksgiving, a lyrical-dramatic exploration of first love, conflicted family relationships and coming and age, and Nonetheless, a book of love poems, meditations and translations. The world premiere in English of Puskin's Little Tragedies in Lowerfeld's verse translated was staged in November 2009 at the Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York.

Edition details

• Publisher: Green Lamp Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0974872016
• ISBN 13: 9780974872018
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 734