Description
Book SynopsisRussia haunted the British cultural imagination throughout the 20th century whether as a romantic source of literary and political inspiration or as a warning of creeping totalitarianism. In this new book, Ira Nadel, charts the story of that influence through the work of some of the key figures in British literature across the century, including Joseph Conrad, Somerset Maugham, Jane Harrison, Virginia Woolf, and H.G. Wells. Framed by the story of two romantic encounters, between Walter Benjamin and the actress Asja Lacis in Moscow in 1926 and between Isaiah Berlin and Anna Akhmatova in 1945,
Love and Russian Literature casts a vivid new light on the ways in which responses to Russia shaped the history of British modernism.
Trade ReviewTo paraphrase James Joyce, this is a book about how love loves to love Russian love, or how prominent Anglo-American cultural figures in the first half of the 20th century got swept away by human and literary manifestations of “Russianness.” * Galya Diment, Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Washington, USA *
Ira Nadel takes readers on a dizzying journey to the mysterious, intoxicating world of love & literature, passion & politics. Embodied in nine paradoxical stories of thinkers, writers, diplomats, fermented with the live yeast of Russian’s catastrophic history, the book plunges you into the thunderstorm atmosphere of a century of upheaval. A fantastic celebration of Modernism’s centennial! * Olga Panova, Lead Research Fellow, Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: ‘Magnanimous Despair’
Prelude: Walter Benjamin in Love Ch. 1 Somerset Maugham: ‘Love and Russian Literature’ Ch. 2 H. Bruce Lockhart: Love and Revolution Ch. 3 Jane Harrison: In Love with Language Ch. 4 William Gerhardie: Flattery is Not Enough
Interlude: Edmund Wilson: In Love with Lenin/ EdmundWilson Russian Love Ch. 5 H.G. Wells: Triangles Ch. 6 Virginia Woolf: The Sound of Russian Love
Postscript: Isaiah Berlin: From the Finland Station Index
