{"product_id":"beyond-tula-a-soviet-pastoral-9781618119735","title":"Beyond Tula: A Soviet Pastoral","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAndrei Egunov-Nikolev’s \u003ci\u003eBeyond Tula\u003c\/i\u003e is an uproarious romp through the earnestly boring and unintentionally campy world of early Soviet “production” prose, with its celebration of robust workers heroically building socialism. Combining burlesque absurdism and lofty references to classical and Russian High Modernist literature with a rather tongue-in-cheek plot about the struggles of an industrializing rural proletariat, this “Soviet pastoral” actually appeared in the official press in 1931 (though it was quickly removed from circulation). As a renegade classics scholar, Egunov was aware of the expressive potential latent in so-called “light genres”—\u003ci\u003eBeyond Tula \u003c\/i\u003eis a modernist pastoral jaunt that leaves the reader with plenty to ponder.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e“The best way to think of [\u003ci\u003eBeyond Tula\u003c\/i\u003e] is as a kind of layer cake, a book that tries to be an Ancient Greek romance, a Soviet-era production novel, a summer idyll, a parody of various 19th-century Russian tropes and ideas, a sour analysis of human nature, and a homoerotic buddy story, \u003ci\u003eall at the same time\u003c\/i\u003e. It skips from satire to parody to music-hall comedy (the characters are constantly singing snatches of popular romances) in a way that is dizzying to read and must have been a riot to translate. (Ainsley Morse’s translation is impeccable: enjoyable, coherent, inventive, and at times very funny.) … \u003ci\u003eBeyond Tula\u003c\/i\u003e is a fine addition to the subgenre of Lucianian satires about nothing much, about mooching and musing, alongside Diderot’s \u003ci\u003eJacques the Fatalist\u003c\/i\u003e or Flaubert’s \u003ci\u003eBouvard et Pécuchet\u003c\/i\u003e. We are lucky to have it in a forthright and laugh-out-loud funny English translation that pops and bubbles.” —James Womack, \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e -- James Womack * Los Angeles Review of Books *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eInt\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003eroduction: A Soviet Pastoral\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eA Note on Names\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePART IChapter OneChapter ThreeChapter FiveChapter Six\u003cbr\u003ePART IIChapter SevenChapter TenChapter ElevenChapter ThirteenChapter Eighteen\u003cbr\u003ePART IIIChapter TwentyChapter Twenty-twoChapter Twenty-five\u003cbr\u003eChapter Twenty-eightChapter Twenty-nineChapter ThirtyChapter Forty\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eNotes\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003eEgunov Bibliography\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"Academic Studies Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51359758713175,"sku":"9781618119735","price":16.14,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781618119735.jpg?v=1754125627","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/beyond-tula-a-soviet-pastoral-9781618119735","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}