Description
Andrei Bely is best known for the modernist masterwork Petersburg, a paradigmatic example of how modern writers strove to evoke the fragmentation of language, narrative, and consciousness. In the early twentieth century, Bely embarked on his life as an artist with texts he called "symphonies"-works experimenting with genre and sound, written in a style that shifts among prosaic, poetic, and musical. This book presents Bely's four Symphonies-"Dramatic Symphony," "Northern Symphony," "The Return," and "Goblet of Blizzards"-fantastically strange stories that capture the banality of life, the intimacy of love, and the enchantment of art.
The Symphonies are quintessential works of modernist innovation in which Bely developed an evocative mythology and distinctive aesthetics. Influenced by Russian Symbolism, Bely believed that the role of modern artists was to imbue seemingly small details with cosmic significance. The Symphonies depict the drabness of daily life with distinct irony and satire-and then soar out of turn-of-the-century Moscow into the realm of the infinite and eternal. They conjure worlds that resemble our own but reveal elements of artifice and magic, hinting at mystical truths and the complete transfiguration of life. Showcasing the protean quality of Bely's language and storytelling, Jonathan Stone's translation of the Symphonies features some of the most captivating and beguiling writing of Russia's Silver Age.
About the Author
Andrei Bely, the pseudonym of Boris Nikolaevich Bugaev (1880-1934), was a central figure of Russian symbolism and modernism as a poet, novelist, and theorist. He was a proponent of innovation who aimed both to revolutionize Russian literature and to find a philosophical framework for modernist techniques. His books include The Silver Dove, Petersburg, and Kotik Letaev.
Jonathan Stone is associate professor of Russian at Franklin & Marshall College. His books include The Institutions of Russian Modernism: Conceptualizing, Publishing, and Reading Symbolism (2017) and Decadence and Modernism in European and Russian Literature and Culture: Aesthetics and Anxiety in the 1890s (2019).
Reviews
Intermodal art was central to Russian Symbolism, but Bely's four Symphonies resist easy definition. Rhythmic, motivic, visionary, commingling mundane matter with elevated spirit and shot through with satire, they relay Bely's sense of symphonic music as a linkage of levels and moods. Jonathan Stone's exquisite translation suspends the reader between the real and the more real. -- Caryl Emerson, author of The Cambridge Introduction to Russian Literature
The richly saturated prose of Bely's innovative Symphonies demands an effective translation. Jonathan Stone has made a scrupulous, powerful version that conveys the work's mythological complexity and the hypnotic effect of its verbal and musical texture. An essential book for study of the Symbolists. -- Sibelan Forrester, translator of The Russian Folktale
Those who read Stone's introduction and translation with care will come away with an understanding that will enable them to appreciate what Bely is undertaking in the Symphonies, even as they work through the profusion of imagery and the fragmentary structure of these writings. There are very few works that compete with this volume in any way. -- Barry Scherr, Dartmouth College
[A] Symbolist masterpiece by the writer whose work Vladimir Nabokov ranked among Russia's greatest literary achievements . . . Otherworldly tales of haunting beauty and a welcome addition to the canon of classic Russian literature in English. * Kirkus Reviews, starred review *
The four works are all worthwhile in their own right but are, of course, interesting both for showing us the Bely the Symbolist in full flight but also showing us the writer of (Petersburg) in his early days. -- John Alvey * The Modern Novel *
Stone's translation reads convincingly throughout, giving as good a sense as is probably achievable in English of what Bely was trying to do. It's a tremendous achievement. -- Steve Dodson * Language Hat *
Encountering The Symphonies in Jonathan Stone's sensitive renderings, one is struck anew by their daring innovation, which seems as fresh today as it did more than a century ago. As this handsome new edition demonstrates, Bely has outlived the fashions of later years: his works remain 'turned towards the future', their exuberance and brisk pace still urging readers on. -- Bryan Karetnyk * Times Literary Supplement *
[A] sensitive and resourceful translation by Jonathan Stone . . . Collectively, The Symphonies offer a glimpse into the cradle of Bely's art: less fully achieved than his mature novels, but closer to a common source in the author's twisted and escapist imagination . . . as a record of Bely's transformation from writer of precious verse to writer of disquieting prose, they possess a palpable energy and excitement and commitment. -- Jacob Emery * Reading in Translation *
Belyi's particular aspirations entailed the harmonization of empirical, rational,
evocative, and mystical aspects of symbolization, and in this respect the work of
translation is similar: the demands of denotation and suggestion, content and form, idea and feeling, and presence and potential bear simultaneously on the project and must all be coordinated with minimal loss and maximal effect. With this daunting task, on these challenging texts, Stone succeeds brilliantly. -- Timothy Langen * Slavic Review *
Book Information
ISBN 9780231199094
Author Jonathan Stone
Format Paperback
Page Count 512
Imprint Columbia University Press
Publisher Columbia University Press
The Symphonies are quintessential works of modernist innovation in which Bely developed an evocative mythology and distinctive aesthetics. Influenced by Russian Symbolism, Bely believed that the role of modern artists was to imbue seemingly small details with cosmic significance. The Symphonies depict the drabness of daily life with distinct irony and satire-and then soar out of turn-of-the-century Moscow into the realm of the infinite and eternal. They conjure worlds that resemble our own but reveal elements of artifice and magic, hinting at mystical truths and the complete transfiguration of life. Showcasing the protean quality of Bely's language and storytelling, Jonathan Stone's translation of the Symphonies features some of the most captivating and beguiling writing of Russia's Silver Age.
About the Author
Andrei Bely, the pseudonym of Boris Nikolaevich Bugaev (1880-1934), was a central figure of Russian symbolism and modernism as a poet, novelist, and theorist. He was a proponent of innovation who aimed both to revolutionize Russian literature and to find a philosophical framework for modernist techniques. His books include The Silver Dove, Petersburg, and Kotik Letaev.
Jonathan Stone is associate professor of Russian at Franklin & Marshall College. His books include The Institutions of Russian Modernism: Conceptualizing, Publishing, and Reading Symbolism (2017) and Decadence and Modernism in European and Russian Literature and Culture: Aesthetics and Anxiety in the 1890s (2019).
Reviews
Intermodal art was central to Russian Symbolism, but Bely's four Symphonies resist easy definition. Rhythmic, motivic, visionary, commingling mundane matter with elevated spirit and shot through with satire, they relay Bely's sense of symphonic music as a linkage of levels and moods. Jonathan Stone's exquisite translation suspends the reader between the real and the more real. -- Caryl Emerson, author of The Cambridge Introduction to Russian Literature
The richly saturated prose of Bely's innovative Symphonies demands an effective translation. Jonathan Stone has made a scrupulous, powerful version that conveys the work's mythological complexity and the hypnotic effect of its verbal and musical texture. An essential book for study of the Symbolists. -- Sibelan Forrester, translator of The Russian Folktale
Those who read Stone's introduction and translation with care will come away with an understanding that will enable them to appreciate what Bely is undertaking in the Symphonies, even as they work through the profusion of imagery and the fragmentary structure of these writings. There are very few works that compete with this volume in any way. -- Barry Scherr, Dartmouth College
[A] Symbolist masterpiece by the writer whose work Vladimir Nabokov ranked among Russia's greatest literary achievements . . . Otherworldly tales of haunting beauty and a welcome addition to the canon of classic Russian literature in English. * Kirkus Reviews, starred review *
The four works are all worthwhile in their own right but are, of course, interesting both for showing us the Bely the Symbolist in full flight but also showing us the writer of (Petersburg) in his early days. -- John Alvey * The Modern Novel *
Stone's translation reads convincingly throughout, giving as good a sense as is probably achievable in English of what Bely was trying to do. It's a tremendous achievement. -- Steve Dodson * Language Hat *
Encountering The Symphonies in Jonathan Stone's sensitive renderings, one is struck anew by their daring innovation, which seems as fresh today as it did more than a century ago. As this handsome new edition demonstrates, Bely has outlived the fashions of later years: his works remain 'turned towards the future', their exuberance and brisk pace still urging readers on. -- Bryan Karetnyk * Times Literary Supplement *
[A] sensitive and resourceful translation by Jonathan Stone . . . Collectively, The Symphonies offer a glimpse into the cradle of Bely's art: less fully achieved than his mature novels, but closer to a common source in the author's twisted and escapist imagination . . . as a record of Bely's transformation from writer of precious verse to writer of disquieting prose, they possess a palpable energy and excitement and commitment. -- Jacob Emery * Reading in Translation *
Belyi's particular aspirations entailed the harmonization of empirical, rational,
evocative, and mystical aspects of symbolization, and in this respect the work of
translation is similar: the demands of denotation and suggestion, content and form, idea and feeling, and presence and potential bear simultaneously on the project and must all be coordinated with minimal loss and maximal effect. With this daunting task, on these challenging texts, Stone succeeds brilliantly. -- Timothy Langen * Slavic Review *
Book Information
ISBN 9780231199094
Author Jonathan Stone
Format Paperback
Page Count 512
Imprint Columbia University Press
Publisher Columbia University Press
