Description
Book SynopsisMajor statements by the celebrated Russian poet Boris Pasternak (1890-1960) about poetry, inspiration, the creative process and the significance of artistic/literary creativity in his own life as well as in human life altogether, are presented here in his own words (in translation) and are discussed in the extensive Commentaries and Introduction. The texts range from 1910 to 1946 and are between two and ninety pages long. There are Commentaries on all the texts, as well as a final Essay on Pasternak's famous novel "Doctor Zhivago", which is looked at here in the light of what it says on art and inspiration.Although universally acknowledged as one of the great writers of the twentieth century, Pasternak is not yet sufficiently recognised as the highly original and important thinker that he also was. All his life he thought and wrote about the nature and significance of the experience of inspiration, though avoiding the word 'inspiration' where possible as his own views were not the conventional ones. My book's purpose is (a) to make this - philosophical - aspect of his work better known, and (b) to communicate to readers without Russian the pleasure and interest of an 'inspired' life as Pasternak experienced it.
Trade Review'Lucid and full commentaries are interspersed between the pieces, making this an indispensable volume for any student of Pasternak or early twentieth-century Russia." -- Sasha Dugdale * Times Literary Supplement *
Table of ContentsThe Marsh of Gold. Pasternak A|s Writings on Inspiration and CreationPreface 00Acknowledgments 00Note on transliteration and dates 00Abbreviations 00Chronology 00Note on literary groups 00Introduction 00I Early Prose 00Some Propositions (1918) 00[Reliquimini]A y (1910) 00Ordering a Drama (1910) 00Heinrich von Kleist. On Asceticism in Culture. (1911) 00[On the Threshold of Inspiration] (1912) 00Symbolism and Immortality [a lecture-synopsis] (1913) 00[End of a Decade] (1913) 00The Black Goblet (1916) 00Letters from Tula (1918) 00Commentary on I (Early Prose) 00Propositions. A- [Reliquimini]. A- Ordering a Drama. A- Notes on names in the early fiction. A- Kleist. A- [On the Threshold]. A- Symbolism and Immortality. A- [End of a Decade]. A- Black Goblet. A- Letters from Tula. A- Other early fiction.II A Safe-Conduct (or: The Preservation Certificate) (1929-31) 00Part One 00Part Two 00Part Three 00Commentary on II (A Safe-Conduct) 00The political moment. A- Rilke. A- Some patterns. A- Part One chapter six. Part Two chapter three. A- Part Two chapter seven. A- Part Two chapter seventeen. A- Mayakovsky. A- The Title.III Fifteen Poems 00February (1912) 00Spring (1914) 00Marburg (1916) 00About These Verses (1917) 00Definition of Poetry (1917) 00Definition of Creation (1917) 00Let A|s Drop Words . . (1917) 00Inspiration (1921) 00Here A|s the Beginning . . (1921) 00Slanted Pictures . . (1922) 00Poetry (1922) 00To Anna Akhmatova (1929) 00To Marina Tsvetaeva (1929) 00Lovely Woman . . (1931) 00Again Chopin . . (1931) 00Commentary on III (Fifteen Poems) 00IV Speeches and Articles, 1930s and A|40s 00Speech at the First All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers (1934) 00Speech at the International Congress of Writers for the Defence of Culture (1935) 00Speech at the Third Plenum of the Board of the Union of Soviet Writers (1936) 00On Shakespeare (1942) 00A New Collection of Work by Anna Akhmatova (1943) 00Selected Works by Anna Akhmatova (1943) 00Notes of a Translator (1944) 00Paul-Marie Verlaine (1944) 00Chopin (1945) 00Remarks on Translations from Shakespeare (1946) 00Commentary on IV (Speeches and Articles, 1930s and A|40s) 00Introductory: the 1925 decree. A- Speech in 1934. A- Speech in 1935. A- Speeches in 1936. A- Akhmatova. A- On translation and on Shakespeare.A- Verlaine. A- Chopin.V An Essay on Doctor Zhivago 00 A novel in prose A . A- Writing poetry. A- A merging of concepts. A- ... some moving entireness A .Notes 00Bibliography 00
