Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Feiler’s book is the most complete biography so far written. The poet’s life is recorded and interpreted in a new way, meaningful and coherent. Marina Tsvetaeva’s very dramatic life is told in splendid detail."—Simon Karlinsky, author of
Marina Tsvetaeva: The Woman, Her World, and Her Poetry"The life and poetry of Marina Tsvetaeva, Russia’s greatest modern poet, were marked by passion, commitment and craft. The terrifying egotism that fueled her poetry and mythologized her life from childhood to suicide has never been so convincingly set out as in Lily Feiler’s psychobiography."—Barbara Heldt, author of
Terrible Perfection: Women and Russian Literature"This well-researched, thoughtful, and fair biography of Marina Tsvetaeva especially illuminates that intimate connection between passionate artist and self-destructive woman that, in very different circumstances, also characterized the genius of Sylvia Plath. Against the background of the Russian Revolution, the privations and hardships endured by this uniquely gifted but psychologically damaged Romantic are viewed with a sympathy untouched by sentimentality. I cannot imagine a better introduction to Tsvetaeva’s conflicted life and work."—Anne Stevenson, author of
Bitter Fame: A Life of Sylvia PlathTable of ContentsAcknowledgments xi
Permissions xiii
A Note on Translations, Transliteration, and Punctuation xv
Introduction 1
1. Family and Childhood: Formative forces 7
2. Growing Up: Reality and Fantasy: God/Devil: the central conflict 22
3. Adolescence, Mother's Death: Schools Broad / Escape into imagination 30
4. Dawning Sexuality: Ellis and Nilender / First poetry collection 43
5. Illusions: Marriage to Sergey Efron / Birth of daughter, Ariadna / Alya Disenchantment / Father's death 56
6. Lesbian Passion: Sofiya Parnok / The wound that would not heal 66
7. In the Shadow of the Revolution: Flirtation with Mandelshtam / Love affairs and dread Birth of second daughter, Irina / Revolution and separation 78
8. Life Under Communism: Poverty, excitement, and creativity / Involvement with actors and theater / Closeness with Alya 86
9. Passion and Despair: Sonechka: fantasy of pure love / Irina's death 95
10. Years of Frenzy and Growth: Volkonsky, Vysheslavtsev, Lann / The Tsar-Maiden and "On a Red Steed" 104
11. New Poetic Voice and Departure: A young Bolshevik, literary friends / Departure 116
12. Russian Berlin: Vishnyak, new infatuation / Old friends: Ehrenburg and Bely Reunion with husband / Correspondence with Pasternak 124
13. Prague, Creative Peak / Creative crest - "The Swain" / Letters to Pasternak and Bakhrakh 133
14. Great Love, Great Pain: Konstantin Rodzevich / "Poem of the Mountain" and "Poem of the End" / Marriage crisis 144
15. Resignation and Birth of Son: Grinding poverty, women friends / Birth of son Georgy (Mur) Move to Paris 152
16. Paris, Success and New Problems: "The Ratcatcher" / Limited Success / Eurasians - new friends, criticism 160
17. The Correspondence with Rilke and Pasternak: Search for the Beyond / Conflict with Pasternak / Economic hardships 168
18. Spiraling Down: Rilke's death / Hostility in literary circles / Efron's turn toward Soviets 180
19. Growing Isolation: Phaedra / After Russia published Defense of Mayakovsky / Nikolay Gronsky 187
20. Hitting Bottom: Poetic crisis, growing isolation / End of Pasternak's marriage / Depression 196
21. Alienation and Self-Analysis: Salomea and "Letter to an Amazon" 203
22. Indigence and Autobiographical Prose: Ivask correspondence / Efron applies for a Soviet passport / Family conflicts 210
23. Further Withdrawal: Pasternak's Visit / Steiger - new hopes for love dashed 223
24. A Fateful Year, 1937: Pushkin essays - a look into herself / Alya's leaving for Russia / The Efron case 231
25. Return to the Soviet Union: Atmosphere of Stalinist terror / Arrest of Alya and Sergey Golytsino Writers' House / Frustrated attempts to publish; translations 242
26. War, Evacuation, Suicide 254
Afterword 265
Notes 269
Bibliography 291
Index 295
