Novels, Tales, Journeys by Alexander Pushkin: book review

Novels, Tales, Journeys: The Complete Prose of Alexander Pushkin (1824-36, this edition 2016) is exactly that—all of Pushkin’s short stories and writings, and all set in Russia. Translators Richard Pevear and Larrisa Volokhonsky provide these new interpretations of Pushkin’s masterpieces.

Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837) was a Russian poet, playwright and novelist, achieving fame at an early age. After marrying Natalia Gontcharova in 1831 at the age of 32, he died in a duel with his wife’s alleged lover in February 1837 and the age of 37.

Here are the stories of love, hate, betrayal, obsession, and passion, usually set in the harsh conditions of the times.

My favourite is ‘The Blizzard.’ I was reminded of the story when I was in Nur Sultan (previously Astana) in wintry Kazakhstan in January 2020, right in the throes of a snow blizzard. It is set in 1811, almost 210 years ago. The short story is about seventeen-year-old Marya Gavrilovna, ‘brought up on French novels’ and in love with a poor army officer Vladimir Nikolaevich, which did not please her parents. They planned to marry in secret, but ‘outside there was a blizzard; the wind howled … everything seemed to her a threat and an omen of sorrow.’ What a wonderful twist this short story has.

Another favourite is ‘A Romance at the Caucasian Waters.’ It begins in the house of Katerina Petrovna Tomskaya in Moscow as she is packing to travel to the Caucasus for about six months. The weather would be more conducive for good health, she says, even though it is so terribly far. People hope that she will return as a married woman.

These stories are great to read over and over again. Simply told, but with such brilliance and powerfully evocative imagery.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of: Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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