The Magical Chorus
by Solomon Volkov
- Used
- Fine
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Fine/Fine
- ISBN 10
- 1400042720
- ISBN 13
- 9781400042722
- Seller
-
Winchester, New Hampshire, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Synopsis
From the reign of Tsar Nicholas II to the brutal cult of Stalin to the ebullient, uncertain days of perestroika, nowhere has the inextricable relationship between politics and culture been more starkly illustrated than in twentieth-century Russia. In the first book to fully examine the intricate and often deadly interconnection between Russian rulers and Russian artists, cultural historian Solomon Volkov (who experienced firsthand many of the events he describes) brings to life the human stories behind some of the greatest masterpieces of our time.Here is Tolstoy, who used his godlike place among the Russian people to rail against the autocracy, even as he eschewed violence; Gorky, the first native writer to openly welcome the revolution and who would go on to become Stalin's closest cultural advisor; Solzhenitsyn, who famously brought the horrors of the Soviet regime to light. Here. too, are Nabokov, Pasternak, Mayakovsky, Akhmatova. In each case, Volkov analyzes the alternate determination and despair, hope and terror borne by writers in a country where, in Solzhenitsyn's maxim, "a great writer is like a second government."This is also the story of the nation's leading lights in painting, music, dance, theater, and cinema--Kandinsky and Malevich, Rachmaninoff and Stravinsky, Diaghilev and Nijinsky, Stanislavsky and Meyerhold, and Eisenstein and Tarkovsky--and the ways in which their triumphs influenced, and were influenced by, the leadership of the time. With an insider's insight, Volkov describes what it was like to work under constant threat of arrest, exile, or execution. He reminds us of the many artists who were compelled to live as emigres, and explores not only their complicated relationships with their adopted countries but Russia's love-hate relationship with Western culture as a whole--a relationship that has grown increasingly charged in the wake of the Soviet Union's collapse.Epic in scope and intimate in detail, The Magical Chorus is the definitive account of a remarkable era in Russia's complex cultural life.From the Hardcover edition.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Gene The Book Peddler (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 027787
- Title
- The Magical Chorus
- Author
- Solomon Volkov
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Fine
- Jacket Condition
- Fine
- Edition
- First Edition
- ISBN 10
- 1400042720
- ISBN 13
- 9781400042722
- Publisher
- Alfred A. Knopf
- Place of Publication
- New York NY
- Date Published
- 2008
- Size
- 8vo - over 7¾" - 9&f
- Bookseller catalogs
- SOCIAL CONDITION;
Terms of Sale
Gene The Book Peddler
BOOKS MAY BE RETURNED ONCE AUTHORIZATION IS GOTTEN FOR ANY BOOK SHIPPED NOT AS DESCRIBED WITHIN 10 DAYS OF RECEIPT. ALL ORDERS SHIPPED WITHIN 24 HOURS.
About the Seller
Gene The Book Peddler
About Gene The Book Peddler
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
- Tight
- Used to mean that the binding of a book has not been overly loosened by frequent use.
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...