Selected Poems.

In a fitted box. Black cloth binding with white title. Picture of Anna Akhmatova on the front board.

Reviews

'I don't read Russian, so I do not know how faithful the translation is to the original, but these translated poems read beautifully in English. There is a good selection of poems here staring with her first collection from 1912. My favourite poems are probably those from the collection 'Reed' written in the 1920s. The book includes some of the uncollected poems too, such as Requiem and Poem without a Hero, including Akhmatova's own notes to the latter. Akhmatova's life encompasses the final years of the Tsars, two world wars (witnessing the siege of Leningrad) and Soviet Russia including Stalin's purges. As part of the Russian intelligentsia, she suffered greatly for many years with her poetry circulated underground because of censorship. At the beginning of the book is a decent introduction plus extracts from Akhmatova's memoirs and there are translator's notes about the poems which are helpful in setting the scene and explaining allusions and background.'

'I received the lovely Folio Society edition of the Selected Poems of Anna Akhmatova as a gift and was moved deeply. It was the first reading I had done of the works of this Russian poet. This edition has a history that is worth mentioning. In 1985, Ohio University Press published the Selected Poems with translations by D.M. Thomas under the title "You Will Hear Thunder." Vintage republished the book in 2009, and it remains available in an inexpensive paperback. The Folio Society published its edition in 2016. It consists of the Thomas translation and notes on the poems together with a new introduction by Elimear McBride. The book comes in a slipcase, is a joy to read and hold, and includes seven illustrations and photographs. It is expensive but a wonderful book to own and to receive as a gift. The book includes a selection of Akhmatova's (1889 -- 1966) poetry from 1909 through the early 1960s. Her work is both intimate, expressivist, and personal and also gives a deeply poetical response to the wars and terrors of the first half of the Twentieth Century, including both World Wars, the Russian Revolution, and the terrors and purges of Communism. Akhmatova lived and suffered through them.'

Anna Andreyevna Gorenko (23 June [ O.S. 11 June] 1889 – 5 March 1966), better known by the pen name Anna Akhmatova, was one of the most significant Russian poets of 20th century. She was shortlisted for the Nobel Prize in 1965 and received second-most (three) nominations for the award the following year.

Akhmatova's work ranges from short lyric poems to intricately structured cycles, such as Requiem (1935–40), her tragic masterpiece about the Stalinist terror. Her style, characterised by its economy and emotional restraint, was strikingly original and distinctive to her contemporaries. The strong and clear leading female voice struck a new chord in Russian poetry. Her writing can be said to fall into two periods – the early work (1912–25) and her later work (from around 1936 until her death), divided by a decade of reduced literary output. Her work was condemned and censored by Stalinist authorities, and she is notable for choosing not to emigrate and remaining in the Soviet Union, acting as witness to the events around her. Her perennial themes include meditations on time and memory, and the difficulties of living and writing in the shadow of Stalinism.

Primary sources of information about Akhmatova's life are relatively scant, as war, revolution and the Soviet regime caused much of the written record to be destroyed. For long periods she was in official disfavour and many of those who were close to her died in the aftermath of the revolution. Akhmatova's first husband, Nikolay Gumilyov, was executed by the Soviet secret police, and her son Lev Gumilyov and her common-law husband Nikolay Punin spent many years in the Gulag, where Punin died.