The Life Written by Himself
by Petrov, Avvakum
- Used
- Condition
- New Book
- ISBN 10
- 0231198094
- ISBN 13
- 9780231198097
- Seller
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San Francisco, California, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
New York: Columbia University Press, 2021. New Book. Paperback. 208 pp.
Moscow in the middle of the seventeenth century had a distinctly apocalyptic feel. An outbreak of the plague killed half the population. A solar eclipse and comet appeared in the sky, causing panic. And a religious reform movement intended to purify spiritual life and provide for the needy had become a violent political project that cleaved Russian society and the Orthodox Church in two. The autobiography of Archpriest Avvakum--a leader of the Old Believers, who opposed liturgical and ecclesiastical reforms--provides a vivid account of these cataclysmic events from a figure at their center.
Written in the 1660s and '70s from a cell in an Arctic village where the archpriest had been imprisoned by the tsar, Avvakum's autobiography is a record of his life, ecclesiastical career, painful exile, religious persecution, and imprisonment. It is also a salvo in a contest about whether to follow the old Russian Orthodox liturgy or import Greek rites and practices. These concerns touched every stratum of Russian society--and for Avvakum, represented an urgent struggle between good and evil.
Avvakum's autobiography has been a cornerstone of Russian literature since it first circulated among religious dissidents. One of the first Russian-language autobiographies and works of any sort to make use of colloquial Russian, its language and style served as a model for writers such as Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Gorky. The Life Written by Himself is not only an important historical document but also an emotionally charged and surprisingly conversational self-portrait of a crucial figure in a tumultuous time.
Moscow in the middle of the seventeenth century had a distinctly apocalyptic feel. An outbreak of the plague killed half the population. A solar eclipse and comet appeared in the sky, causing panic. And a religious reform movement intended to purify spiritual life and provide for the needy had become a violent political project that cleaved Russian society and the Orthodox Church in two. The autobiography of Archpriest Avvakum--a leader of the Old Believers, who opposed liturgical and ecclesiastical reforms--provides a vivid account of these cataclysmic events from a figure at their center.
Written in the 1660s and '70s from a cell in an Arctic village where the archpriest had been imprisoned by the tsar, Avvakum's autobiography is a record of his life, ecclesiastical career, painful exile, religious persecution, and imprisonment. It is also a salvo in a contest about whether to follow the old Russian Orthodox liturgy or import Greek rites and practices. These concerns touched every stratum of Russian society--and for Avvakum, represented an urgent struggle between good and evil.
Avvakum's autobiography has been a cornerstone of Russian literature since it first circulated among religious dissidents. One of the first Russian-language autobiographies and works of any sort to make use of colloquial Russian, its language and style served as a model for writers such as Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Gorky. The Life Written by Himself is not only an important historical document but also an emotionally charged and surprisingly conversational self-portrait of a crucial figure in a tumultuous time.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Globus Books (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 7706
- Title
- The Life Written by Himself
- Author
- Petrov, Avvakum
- Book Condition
- New
- Quantity Available
- 1
- ISBN 10
- 0231198094
- ISBN 13
- 9780231198097
- Publisher
- Columbia University Press
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 2021
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About the Seller
Globus Books
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San Francisco, California
About Globus Books
Globus Books, an independent bookstore serving San Francisco since 1971, offers a wide-ranging and always changing stock of books on all things Russia.