J.A.E. Curtis

A Reader’s Companion to Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita

J.A.E. Curtis

A handy and concise introduction to a complex novel of Russian literature.Provides an authoritative account of Bulgakov’s life and his struggle to survive during the Terror.The author has been following Bulgakov studies since the novel first appeared in the 1970s, and offers a review of all the major critical debates about the text.Offers close analysis of stylistic features of the novel, for readers of Russian and English alike.Provides a helpful comparison of available English translations.An up-to-date review of the most recent scholarship about the novel’s writing and publication history.

The Englishman from Lebedian

J.A.E. Curtis

After Evgeny Zamiatin emigrated from the USSR in 1931, he was systematically airbrushed out of Soviet literary history, despite the central role he had played in the cultural life of Russia’s northern capital for nearly twenty years. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, his writings have gradually been rediscovered in Russia, but with his archives scattered between Russia, France, and the USA, the project of reconstructing the story of his life has been a complex task. This book, the first full biography of Zamiatin in any language, draws upon his extensive correspondence and other documents in order to provide an account of his life which explores his intimate preoccupations, as well as uncovering the political and cultural background to many of his works. It reveals a man of strong will and high principles, who negotiated the political dilemmas of his day—including his relationship with Stalin—with great shrewdness.