Russian Books - Page 2

Marc Chagall, 1887-1985: Painting As Poetry (Taschen Art Series)

Ingo F. Walther

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

The happy painter of images! 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

His muse was Bella. He celebrated every anniversary of his wedding with a picture in which he and her appeared.

"The inner world is perhaps, more real than the visible world.", affirmed once.

Almost all his work have consisted in love pictures, sinuous fantasies that seemed to disorient the spectator, where birds, quadrupeds and fishes join to a Ode to Joy. His chosen colors acquire vivid tunes of the rainbow; with them variegates details such tress curdled with exotic flowers, a horse that plays a violin, hen' s eggs inside a gold' s nestle, or a cow that jumps on the ceiling of a house.

You will also see, the his famous etched plates to illustrate the Bible as well as his famous pictorial motive on the roof of Paris Opera.


This detailed and splendid biography has everything you request. "The three candles" has always been one of my favorites works of this notable artist.

It' s pleasantly illustrated with abundant information and wonderful reproductions. Go for it without dilation.

Editorial Review:

Marc Chagall (1887-1985) is widely regarded as epitomizing the "painter as poet". The worldwide admiration he commanded remains unparalleled by any artist of the 20th century. Chagall's paintings, steeped in mythology and mysticism, portray colourful dreams and tales that are deeply rooted in his Russian Jewish origins. The memories and yearning they evoke recall his native Vitebsk, and the great events that mark the life of ordinary people: birth, love, marriage and death. They tell of a world full of everyday miracles - in the room of lovers, on the streets of Vitebsk, beneath the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Heaven and earth seem to meet in a topsy-turvy world in which whimsical figures of people and animals float through the air with gravity-defying serenity. This art album presents Chagall's work.

Toolbox Classics

Highbridge

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A Welcome Relief! 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 8 people found this review helpful.

Aside from a couple of Supreme Court decisions limiting capital punishment, this has been a dismal week, with our ill-eagle, incompetent government trashing the Constitution, as usual. So -- it was an immense relief that I received through the mail a package of CDs today, one of which is Woody Phillips' TOOLBOX CLASSICS. I'm a fan of classical music humor, especially parodists like "PDQ Bach," Anna Russell, and the British composers who contributed to the Hoffnung Interplanetary Music Festivals, and I enjoy wood-working, but I'd probably never have heard of this obscure CD if it hadn't been played on our local Public Radio station. They've played at least two selections from the album while I was driving to the train station. I nearly crashed my car, laughing at Rimsky-Korsakoff's "Flight of the Bumblebee."

There are a total of 14 lovingly parodied classical selections on the CD. Each is played with great expertise, both rhythmically and tunefully, by a trained composer who obviously knows these pieces. The difference is that the musical instruments are items found in a commercial machine shop, around a cabinetmaker's workspace, or in a better-than-average home workshop. They include a lowly broom, which, of course, enhances Dukas' "The Sorcerer's Apprentice." The liner notes furnish a handsome photograph of Paul Dukas wearing Mickey Mouse ears, and the explanatory text on each piece is almost as wildly funny as the music.

The tonal range of the music Woody Phillips can get from power tools, especially drills and dremels, is simply amazing. He uses several sizes of power drills in "Ride of the Valkyries," in the hysterically funny 1st movement of Beethoven's Fifth, and, to obtain that busy-bee sound, in "The Flight of the Bumblebee."

One of the cleverest of all the parodies is the first one, the dawn theme from "Thus Spake Zarathustra" by Richard Strauss, made famous in the movie 2001, which uses a large drill press motor, table saw, hand saw, 50 gallon drum, pipes, and vacuum cleaner. The results are not only amazingly musical, they hazarded my recent knee replacements when I came close to falling out of my chair, I was laughing so hard. (The large drill press motor provides a growling bass that Schnittke would have latched on to for his "Faust Cantata" tango.) Another 2001 theme, Johann Strauss' "Beautiful Blue Danube," brings the album to a rousing close with a workshop orchestra of truly Mahlerian proportions -- musical saw, small & large drill press motors, 2 by 4s, pipes, 50 gallon drum, jointer, vacuum cleaner, anvil, bottles (blown on), framing square, hammer, hand plane, file, table saw, ratchet, pneumatic nailer, power mitre box, antique hand drill and hand saw. A "power" mitre box? I have a mitre box, but how would you power one up?

Anyway, if you want a treat, I recommend TOOLBOX CLASSICS. While listening you might want to pop HARDWARE WARS into your home video with the sound turned off, but don't eat popcorn; you'll probably swallow it the wrong way!

Editorial Review:

These are melodies that listeners know and love, but with a twist--and a clack, whine, and bang. From Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" to Strauss's "Also Sprach Zarathustra", Mozart's "Turkish March", Khachaturian's "Sabre Dance", Bach's "Minuet", and Wagner's "Anvil Chorus", this wonderful collection reveals the symphonic potential of the workbench.

Anna of All the Russias: A Life of Anna Akhmatova

Elaine Feinstein

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Slow but enjoyable 3 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

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.

Editorial Review:

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.

The Three Sisters

Anton Chekhov

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Masterful 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I recently went to a reading of this play by a theatre group here in Philadelphia that I really enjoy. Although I could write a very positive review of their reading, I'll try and focus on the writing itself. This play presents a masterful peek into societal life for three sisters living in a relatively small Russian city of 100,000 people. The theme of living in your memories or living in your hopes is a major theme that is magnificently played out across the play's long four acts. Each of the main characters has a catch phrase or speech that they deliver a variant of in each act, the first time full of hope and happiness and with each passing act with more and more despair and hopelessness. The three sister's arcs into unhappiness and depression weave together to create a very cohesive whole. I thought the contrast between the three sisters and their one brother played perfectly into the development of the sisters' characters. In fact, the contrast between the male characters and the female characters was very interesting all around. The transformation of Natasha's character was also an interesting shift. I found the character of Solyony to be one of the only male characters that compared to the three sisters, but I can't put my finger on why. Watching the town fall apart through the lives of the sisters made for a great play. If you can stand some slow plot development and lengthy dialog (ie, it is a Russian story), you should really check this play out!

Editorial Review:

In this, his third adaptation of a Chekhov play, Pulitzer Prize–winning author David Mamet offers a contemporary, highly accessible version of Chekhov’s The Three Sisters. Working from a literal translation by Vlada Chernomordik, Mamet has rediscovered the characteristically modern chords in this powerful play and breathes new life into a timeless classic. This is Chekhov rendered in direct, colloquial language marked by Mamet’s finely tuned ear for dialogue.

Eugene Onegin and Other Poems: and Other Poems (Everyman's Library Pocket Poets)

Alexander Pushkin

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A Classic Best Read in Russian 5 out of 5 stars.
10 of 11 people found this review helpful.

"Eugene Onegin" was the first major work written in Russian, helping to establish that language's illustrious literary tradition. This novel in verse brought to fame Aleksandr Pushkin, who later turned his talents from poetry on to prose fiction with such titles as "The Captain's Daughter", "The Queen of Spades", and "Dubrovskii".

Briefly, the story concerns the encounter between two landed gentry, Eugene, who is disillusioned by his former experiences of St. Petersburg, and Tatyana, a provincial girl who sees the world through her English romance poetry. Obviously, the meeting is an ugly one. The ending is left for the reader to discover, but we all get to see how pitiful Onegin really is.

This edition includes the unfinished poem, "Onegin's Journey", and the classic "The Bronze Horseman", which is famous for describing the unstoppable and cruel will of Peter the Great in modernizing Russia.

The only problem that I had was in the English translation of "Eugene Onegin". Translating a poem from one lanaguage to another, while still maintaining proper meter and rhyme is no mean feat. Nevertheless, something is lost in the delivery of the poem and unfortunately, we can appreciate only part of Pushkin's genius by reading the English translation. I'd like to learn Russian well enough to be able to read Pushkin's poetry in order to appreciate his work more fully. Well I'm working on it!

Editorial Review:

Eugene Onegin (1833) is a comedy of manners, written in exquisitely crafted verse, about two young members of the Russian gentry, the eponymous hero and the girl Tatyana, who don't quite connect. It is also the greatest masterpiece of Russian literature - the source of the human archetypes and the attitudes that define and govern the towering fictional creations of nineteenth century Russia and one of the most celebrated poems of the world. Before Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837) wrote Eugene Onegin, his nation's literature was a parochial one; after he wrote it, due in no small part to its power and influence, the Russian tradition became one of the central traditions of Western civilization.

Selected Poems

Marina Tsvetaeva

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

This sounds like true poetry 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

I do not know Russian. I cannot comment on whether or not Elaine Feinstein has captured or missed completely the supposedly brilliant aural qualities of the original verse.
What I can say is that reading these poems I have a sense of true poetry. There is a depth of feeling and a passion, a soul being revealed in depth, a life in its sufferings and straining for beauty.
Perhaps more words are irrelevant, and I shall just give a few excerpts from the book.

From ' I know the truth'

'The wind is level now, the earth is wet with dew,
the storm of stars in the sky will turn to quiet,
And soon all of us will sleep under the earth,we
who never let each other sleep above it. '

From 'What is this gypsy passion for separation'

'that no one turning over our letters has
yet understood how completely and
how deeply faithless we are, which is
to say: how true we are to ourselves.'

From ' You loved me'

You loved me. And your lies had their own probity.
There was truth in every falsehood
Your love went far beyond any possible
boundary as no one else's could.

Your love seemed to last even longer
than time itself. Now you wave your hand-
and suddenly your love for me is over!
That is the truth in five words."

Editorial Review:

Elaine Feinstein is a poet of lyrical directness. That clear, passionate voice which she brought to her celebrated translations of Marina Tsvetayeva's poetry is her own. She writes about love, loss, jealousy, the fear of abandonment. Her powerful rhythms flow down the page, seeking to draw a coherent shape out of the inner uncertainties. She also writes with tenderness about an ageing father, a child on a swing, old films, a flowering cactus. Hers is a poetry which can contain and welcome. The rare landscape poems are always peopled, and the considerable narrative and dramatic skills of a major novelist give urgency to her evocation of the classical figures of Dido and Eurydice. She has also found a poignant lyricism in writing of the inhabitants of her local streets and the ordinary pleasures of daily life. The poems in this selection are drawn from eleven volumes published over thirty years.

Contemporary Russian Poetry

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Editorial Review:

Prominent Moscow poet Evgeny Bunimovich selected representative work from forty-four living Russian poets born after 1945 to be translated and published in this bilingual edition. The collection ranges from the mordant post-Soviet irony of Igor Irteniev to the fresh voices of poets like Marianna Geide and Anna Russ—young women just beginning to make themselves heard. The book includes the work of Booker Prize winner Sergey Gandlevsky and several winners of the Andrey Bely Prize and Brodsky Fellowships. Most of these poems, and many of the poets, have previously been unpublished in the West.

Collected Narrative and Lyrical Poetry

Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

An Excellent Translation 5 out of 5 stars.
26 of 26 people found this review helpful.

After finding this book, I found it difficult to put down. Translating Russian poetry is a challenge indeed, and most translators will make mention of that, but Arndt does not. I have read the original Russian of most of these works, as well as several attempts (all unsuccessful) to translate Pushkin, and this is the first time that any person has been able to successfully render its depth and character in English. If you like good poetry, but can't read Russian, then this is the book you will want, and treasure for years to come.

Fantastic translation 5 out of 5 stars.
13 of 13 people found this review helpful.

I've bought this book as a gift to my English-speaking friend and was very impressed with the translation. It is so close to the Russian original. I also like that the books includes fairly tales - excellent reading for kids.

Pushkin Rocks! 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

I am a huge fan of Pushkin, and this is the best book of his poems! I got this for my birthday, and I read it all night it was so good! I love his poems, and some are even funny.

Selected Poems (Penguin Classics)

Anna Akhmatova

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Editorial Review:

Anna Akhmatova is not only Russia’s finest woman poet but perhaps the greatest in the history of Western culture. This volume brings together all of D. M. Thomas’s acclaimed translations of Akhmatova’s poems, including "Poem Without a Hero" and "Requiem," her poem of the Stalinist Terror.

History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2

Anatoly Fomenko

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Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

`History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2` is the second volume of the most explosive and astounding tractate on history ever written - however, every theory it contains, no matter how unorthodox, is backed by rock solid scientific data. The book is easy and pleasant to read; it is well-illustrated, contains hundreds of charts, graphs and illustrations, copies of ancient manuscripts, and countless facts attesting to the falsity of the chronology used nowadays. You will be amazed to discover: - That the chronology universally accepted today and taken for granted is simply wrong; - That ALL methods of dating of ancient sources and artefacts known today are erroneous or non-exact; - That there is not a single document that could be reliably dated earlier than the XIth century; The Author refers to the Middle Ages as the “Antiquity” and proves mutual superimposition of the Second and the Third Roman Empire, both of which become identified as the respective kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Furthermore, he asserts that the famous reform of the Occidental Church in the XI century by “Pope Gregory Hildebrand” was the reflection of the XII century reforms of Byzantine emperor Andronicus who in his turn identifies with Jesus Christ. The Trojan war counted by Homer happened only as late as of the XIII century A.D. and the great poet actually lived in XIV century A.D. No stone in history of Antiquity is left unturned. Literally. This book is the beginning of a major correction to the chronology we live with.