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Anna of All the Russias: A Life of Anna Akhmatova
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Manufacturer: Vintage
Author: Elaine Feinstein
Publisher: Vintage
Average Customer Rating:
Our Price: $12.44
You Save: $ 3.51 ( 22% )
Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Vintage
Author: Elaine Feinstein
Publisher: Vintage
Average Customer Rating:
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Anna of All the Russias: A Life of Anna Akhmatova Description
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 891.7142
EAN: 9781400033782
ISBN: 1400033780
Label: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 368
Publication Date: 2007-04-10
Publisher: Vintage
Product Release Date: 2007-04-10
Studio: Vintage
Dewey Decimal Number: 891.7142
EAN: 9781400033782
ISBN: 1400033780
Label: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 368
Publication Date: 2007-04-10
Publisher: Vintage
Product Release Date: 2007-04-10
Studio: Vintage
Editorial Review of Anna of All the Russias: A Life of Anna Akhmatova
In this definitive biography of the legendary Russian poet, Elaine Feinstein draws on a wealth of newly available material–including memoirs, letters, journals, and interviews with surviving friends and family–to produce a revelatory portrait of both the artist and the woman.
Anna Akhmatova rose to fame in the years before World War I, but she would pay a heavy price for the political and personal passions that informed her brilliant poetry. In Anna of All the Russias we see Akhmatova's work banned from 1925 until 1940 and again after World War II. We see her steadfast opposition to Stalin, even while her son was held in the Gulag. We see her abiding loyalty to such friends as Mandelstam, Shostakovich, and Pasternak as they faced Stalinist oppression. And we see how, through everything, Akhmatova continued to write, her poetry giving voice to the Russian people by whom she was, and still is, deeply loved.
Anna Akhmatova rose to fame in the years before World War I, but she would pay a heavy price for the political and personal passions that informed her brilliant poetry. In Anna of All the Russias we see Akhmatova's work banned from 1925 until 1940 and again after World War II. We see her steadfast opposition to Stalin, even while her son was held in the Gulag. We see her abiding loyalty to such friends as Mandelstam, Shostakovich, and Pasternak as they faced Stalinist oppression. And we see how, through everything, Akhmatova continued to write, her poetry giving voice to the Russian people by whom she was, and still is, deeply loved.
Customer Reviews of Anna of All the Russias: A Life of Anna Akhmatova
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Great poet, fascinating beauty , heart rending Russian history lesson
Review: What a moving , inspiring biography this is !
A Must read.
If you are not acquainted with Anna Akhmatova
And the astonishing artistic creativity in Russia
that miraculously abided
thru unimaginable tumolt and oppression.
This book will do the trick!
Part of this miracle:
how passionate and tender their support towards each other amidst.
What beauty endured.
Amazing, complex and ardent characters in her circle described, too.
And they were real.
Perhaps
one accomplshment of this bio
is that it leaves one
humbeled yet sumptuously entertained in the midst..
My edition , dog eared by now.
What a fascinating woman and time in Russia.
You will fall in love.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: An illuminating and highly readable biography
Review: Elaine Feinstein's engrossing biography of Anna Akhmatova - one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century - makes the woman, her work and her world vividly alive. In chronicling this extraordinarily dramatic life, Feinstein makes use of a broad range of new material, including letters, journals and memoirs, and interviews Akhmatova's surviving friends and relatives.
Feinstein follows Akhmatova from her privileged Russian youth to her free-spirited early adulthood and her first, unhappy marriage to the poet Nikolay Gumilyov. The 1920s were years of starvation in Russia, but for Akhmatova they were also a period of great creativity and many love affairs, some painful, others more fulfilling. In a key encounter, Akhmatova met and fell in love with a married art historian, Vladimir Punin, and lived with him in his apartment, where his unhappy wife and young daughter had to remain.
During this time, Akhmatova's son, Lev, from her first marriage, suddenly re-entered her life. Feinstein gives a heartbreaking account of her relationship with Lev, who was exiled in Siberia for many years. (Despite Akhmatova's many pleas to the Soviet authorities on his behalf, Lev was not rehabilitated until 1956.)
Akhmatova's works were banned in the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1940, but despite ill health and further turmoil, her inner toughness enabled her to continue to write poetry of genius. She remained in Leningrad when the Nazis invaded and then was airlifted out to Tashkent, where she spent the war years.
This immensely readable and profoundly touching study shows how, despite her many hardships, Akhmatova was prepared to give her unstinting support to friends such as Mandelstam, Pasternak and Shostakovich who were victimised by the Stalin regime. And Feinstein sheds invaluable light on the uniqueness of the poems which gave a voice to the people of Russia and which still evoke intense love and admiration for Akhmatova to this day.
Marcus Adams
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Slow but enjoyable
Review: I particularly liked Feinstein's biography of Akhmatova, although is a slow read, it introduces the reader to the human Akhmatova, with all her qualities and imperfections. Her generosity as a friend, her passion for poetry, her frail relationship with her son, the failed marriages and dire love affairs, the everyday struggle for existence all of these aspects reflected in her poetry. There are many interesting facts about her life like her meeting with Isaiah Berlin and the emotional and political consequence that followed, her marriage to the eccentric Vladimir Shilejko and her strange relationship with Lydia Chukovskaya all of which give a new and complete portrait of Akhmatova as a poet and a soviet citizen.
Review Summary: Great poet, fascinating beauty , heart rending Russian history lesson
Review: What a moving , inspiring biography this is !
A Must read.
If you are not acquainted with Anna Akhmatova
And the astonishing artistic creativity in Russia
that miraculously abided
thru unimaginable tumolt and oppression.
This book will do the trick!
Part of this miracle:
how passionate and tender their support towards each other amidst.
What beauty endured.
Amazing, complex and ardent characters in her circle described, too.
And they were real.
Perhaps
one accomplshment of this bio
is that it leaves one
humbeled yet sumptuously entertained in the midst..
My edition , dog eared by now.
What a fascinating woman and time in Russia.
You will fall in love.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: An illuminating and highly readable biography
Review: Elaine Feinstein's engrossing biography of Anna Akhmatova - one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century - makes the woman, her work and her world vividly alive. In chronicling this extraordinarily dramatic life, Feinstein makes use of a broad range of new material, including letters, journals and memoirs, and interviews Akhmatova's surviving friends and relatives.
Feinstein follows Akhmatova from her privileged Russian youth to her free-spirited early adulthood and her first, unhappy marriage to the poet Nikolay Gumilyov. The 1920s were years of starvation in Russia, but for Akhmatova they were also a period of great creativity and many love affairs, some painful, others more fulfilling. In a key encounter, Akhmatova met and fell in love with a married art historian, Vladimir Punin, and lived with him in his apartment, where his unhappy wife and young daughter had to remain.
During this time, Akhmatova's son, Lev, from her first marriage, suddenly re-entered her life. Feinstein gives a heartbreaking account of her relationship with Lev, who was exiled in Siberia for many years. (Despite Akhmatova's many pleas to the Soviet authorities on his behalf, Lev was not rehabilitated until 1956.)
Akhmatova's works were banned in the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1940, but despite ill health and further turmoil, her inner toughness enabled her to continue to write poetry of genius. She remained in Leningrad when the Nazis invaded and then was airlifted out to Tashkent, where she spent the war years.
This immensely readable and profoundly touching study shows how, despite her many hardships, Akhmatova was prepared to give her unstinting support to friends such as Mandelstam, Pasternak and Shostakovich who were victimised by the Stalin regime. And Feinstein sheds invaluable light on the uniqueness of the poems which gave a voice to the people of Russia and which still evoke intense love and admiration for Akhmatova to this day.
Marcus Adams
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Slow but enjoyable
Review: I particularly liked Feinstein's biography of Akhmatova, although is a slow read, it introduces the reader to the human Akhmatova, with all her qualities and imperfections. Her generosity as a friend, her passion for poetry, her frail relationship with her son, the failed marriages and dire love affairs, the everyday struggle for existence all of these aspects reflected in her poetry. There are many interesting facts about her life like her meeting with Isaiah Berlin and the emotional and political consequence that followed, her marriage to the eccentric Vladimir Shilejko and her strange relationship with Lydia Chukovskaya all of which give a new and complete portrait of Akhmatova as a poet and a soviet citizen.