ABSTRACT

This book, first published in 1949, is an abridged version of Mirsky’s classic two texts on Russian literature, updated with a postscript by the editor assessing the development of Soviet literature. Beautifully written, Mirsky’s analyses of Russian writers and literature go hand in hand with his takes on Russian history. From the birth of Russian literature to its Soviet form, this book is a lively and comprehensive examination by one of its leading scholars.

chapter |288 pages

Book One: to 1881

chapter |1 pages

chapter Chapter 1|27 pages

The Literature of Old Russia

(Eleventh to Seventeenth Centuries)

chapter Chapter 2|10 pages

The Passing of Old Russia

The Southwestern Revival

chapter Chapter 3|31 pages

The Age of Classicism

chapter Chapter 4|51 pages

The Golden Age of Poetry

chapter Chapter 5|47 pages

The Age of Gógol

chapter Chapter 6|36 pages

The Age of Realism: The Novelists (I)

chapter Chapter 7|40 pages

The Age of Realism: Journalists, Poets, and Phywrights

chapter Chapter 8|44 pages

The Age of Realism: The Novelists (II)

chapter |228 pages

Book Two: After 1881

chapter |1 pages

chapter Chapter 1|42 pages

The End of a Great Age

chapter Chapter 2|35 pages

The Eighties and Early Nineties

chapter Interchapter|6 pages

The First Revolution

chapter Chapter 3|33 pages

Prose Fiction after Chékhov

chapter Chapter 4|23 pages

The New Movements of the Nineties

chapter Chapter 5|55 pages

The symbolists

chapter Chapter 6|19 pages

Poetry after 1910

chapter |13 pages

Editor’s Postscript

(To Paul McGeorge)