Life of a Bishop's Assistant is a "rewritten" biography of the 18th century historical figure, Gavriil Dobrinin. The son of a priest, he became an assistant to a bishop before being fortunate to rise all the way to gubernia procurator. Despite the obscurity of Dobrinin, it is Shklovsky's narration of his story that takes center stage. Like Zoo, or Letters Not About Love, Life of a Bishop's Assistant is a notable example of experimentation with narrative form in the early twentieth century by one of its leading theorists.

About the Author

Viktor Shklovsky (1893-1984) was a leading figure in the Russian Formalist movement of the 1920s and had a profound effect on twentieth-century Russian literature. Several of his works have been translated into English, including Theory of Prose, Knight's Move, and Hunt for Optimism.

Reviews

[S]erves up some subtly funny, suggestively subversive resonances that might remind the reader of his contemporary Mikhail Bulgakov

* Kirkus Reviews *

Shklovsky is a disciple worthy of Sterne. He has appropriated the device of of infinitely delayed events, of the digression helplessly promising to return to the point, and of disguising his superbly controlled art with a breezy nonchalance. But it is not really Sterne that Shklovsky sounds like: it is an intellectual and witty Hemingway

* National Review *



Book Information
ISBN 9781628971743
Author Viktor Shklovsky
Format Paperback
Page Count 185
Imprint Dalkey Archive Press
Publisher Dalkey Archive Press