MIKHAIL SHOLOKHOV: A Critical Introduction

Stewart, D.H.

Published by Ann Arbor. 1967. Univ. Of Michigan Press

About this Item

green cloth hardbound 8vo. 8º (octavo). dustwrapper in protective plastic book jacket cover. fine cond. binding square & tight. covers clean. bit of sunfading along top edges of covers. edges clean. contents free of markings. dustwrapper in near fine cond. bit of rubbing, not price clipped. nice clean copy. no library markings or store stamps, no stickers or bookplates, no names, no inking , no underlining, no remainder markings etc ~. first edition. first printing (NAP). viii+250p. 2 appendices. notes. bibliography. index. NOTE: There is a label glued on the front flyleaf stating "Research for this book was partially supported by the Horace B. Rackham School of Graduate Studies". biography. russian literature. russian history. quiet flows the don. cossacks. ~ Mikhail Sholokhov is the only major Soviet author whose reputation abroad equals his reputation at home. The Soviet Union has honored him with two Lenin prizes; he received the Nobel prize for literature in 1965; and world' sales of his books are estimated at fifty million copies. But because Sholokhov is neither a martyr to Stalinism nor a dissident intellectual, Western critics have tended to discount or ignore his literary achievement. D. H. Stewart, here presenting the first extensive study of Sholokhov in English, does consider him in relation to Soviet letters and ideology, but he also views him as an author addressing issues much larger than his local region or nation. Stewart's critical study follows Sholokhov's progression from apprentice short story writer, up through epic bard of a people destined for tragedy, and down again to didactic Soviet novelist. Stewart carefully assesses the literary value of Sholokhov's work, always bearing in mind the problems of an author limited by a political system. The major portion of critical attention is devoted to Sholokhov's novel The Quiet Don (published in English in two parts, And Quiet Flows the Don and The Don Flows Home to the Sea), on which his world reputation rests, Stewart points out that not only is The Quiet Don of high literary value, but it is also an anomaly in twentieth~century literature, a tale far more akin to The Iliad than to Ulysses. Stewart shows that Sholokhov's works, unlike most contemporary Western literature, reflect a people struggling with an environment instead of brooding over it, and that they illustrate, perhaps more fully than any other writer's, the triumphs and failures of Soviet development. Seller Inventory # 7281804

Bibliographic Details

Title: MIKHAIL SHOLOKHOV: A Critical Introduction

Publisher: Ann Arbor. 1967. Univ. Of Michigan Press

Binding: Hardcover

Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included

Edition: 1st Edition