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57th out of 283 books
—
1,017 voters
Petersburg
..". a translation that captures Bely's idiosyncratic language and the rhythm of his prose, and without doing violence to English, conveys not only the literal meaning of the Russian but also its echoes and implications." --The New York Review of Books
"This translation of Petersburg finally makes it possible to recognize Andrei Bely's great novel of 1913 as a crucial Russi...more
"This translation of Petersburg finally makes it possible to recognize Andrei Bely's great novel of 1913 as a crucial Russi...more
Paperback, 384 pages
Published
January 22nd 1979
by Indiana University Press
(first published 1913)
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I never did finish this when I was taking a class on the Russian avant-garde: it got much too confusing. My father reminded me it wasn't a surreal but a Symbolist work, but even if that's the case, I was utterly mystified by what the symbols meant!. Still, I give it an honorable mention for having been translated by my professor.
A Petersburgo irreal e fantástica de Biéli descende diretamente do mito da Petersburgo de Puchkin, Gogol e Dostoiévski, mas não é a mesma. Isso porque a Petersburgo de Biéli é fruto de seu século, neurótica, parricida, descrita em uma linguagem quebrada e intrincada. Não é a toa que o exigentíssimo Nabokov disse que era um dos quatro melhores livros do século.
"Tu, Rússia, és como o cavalo! Dois cascos dianteiros projetados para a escuridão, pasa o zazio; e os dois cascos traseiros cravados firme...more
"Tu, Rússia, és como o cavalo! Dois cascos dianteiros projetados para a escuridão, pasa o zazio; e os dois cascos traseiros cravados firme...more
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After learning 19th Russian Historians had to say about the bomb tossed at the carriage of the Russian Tsar, the first defiance against the monarch by terrorists unsupressed by the massive Russian Bear. Bely's Petersburg is a novel with the seizure on the Palace in Moscow where the Tsar hardly scraped the riots as crowds tore in the city streets for his royal heinous, and the reactionary Tsar emerging from the ashes with his great St Petersburg. Where the stolid enforcement on the letter of the...more
Yes, yes Andrei Bely, I shall plunge into your world of candy-coated crayons, supertzar Slavs, and sardine-can ordinance, of a père et fil in merry-go-round pursuit to discover and detonate the bomb. Lauded by Nabo, compressed and expanded, a slyly singsong cavalcade of daydream dalliance, mythomnemonic mayhem, and prancing prickliness, all coated with allusion and fired until the melancholic gloss shimmers like a midnight sun—I am firm in my faith in Davey Boy, clan McClan, clan McDuff, to ligh...more
Whoa. Fucken whoa. Really enjoyable, yet I constantly felt that to really appreciate the depths of this book I should have a 10 year minimum background in Russian literature and a good handle on the cultural history of the 19th and 20th centuries. Fortunately, it doesn't take scholarship to appreciate life's farcical underbelly which Biely upturns with alternating emphasis on humor and pain. Sergey Sergeyevich's failed hanging gave me a whole new appreciation for the underlying ridiculousness of...more
Jul 27, 2008
Scott Laughlin
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommended to Scott by:
A 20th Century Russian Classic
The book is quite difficult but amazingly rewarding. You really have to gear up for it, as Bely is employing many of the modernist techniques such as fractured narrative and time. Also, the notes in the back, while amazingly helpful, especially if you have little context for Russia, are so extensive, it's as if you're reading two books at one time. I recommend this wonderful novel for those who simply want to go deeper into Russian Literature. If you have other big books by Tolstoy and Dostoevsk...more
What can I say? This novel is the bomb...
Okay, Apollon Apollonovich would have liked that one... Anyways, it's a must read for anyone with an interest in Russian literature, though I would not recommend it as a jumping off point; it's the distillation of all the greats preceding it, with echos of Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky resounding in the city streets of Petersburg. The edition I read did not have notes, so I probably lost out on much of the wordplay and inside jokes, but those I d...more
Okay, Apollon Apollonovich would have liked that one... Anyways, it's a must read for anyone with an interest in Russian literature, though I would not recommend it as a jumping off point; it's the distillation of all the greats preceding it, with echos of Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky resounding in the city streets of Petersburg. The edition I read did not have notes, so I probably lost out on much of the wordplay and inside jokes, but those I d...more
Typical Russians: running around the city in strange clothing, storing bombs in sardine tins (I just discovered the joys of canned meat. Kipper snacks, anyone?), parricide (inevitably), recluses (inevitably), black-haired maidens, and other neuroses.
It was perfect in every way, except that it went off on strange rants about things unrelated to anything, reached back time without warning, and ventured into dreams without telling me (I think.) I wanted to step into this book, even if it meant livi...more
It was perfect in every way, except that it went off on strange rants about things unrelated to anything, reached back time without warning, and ventured into dreams without telling me (I think.) I wanted to step into this book, even if it meant livi...more
Vladimir Nabokov was half-right when he cited the top four greatest novelists of the 20th century. Joyce and Proust clearly are worthy of their luminous literary prominence. While I admire Kafka and his novels, I would hardly rank him among the top four of the century. Bellow, Faulkner, Barth, Hemingway, Gaddis and Vonnegut, for example, all out-gun either Kafka or Biely in their literary prominence. While I admire Nabokov, too, I also wouldn't rank him in the top four and my best guess is that...more
Bely, Andrei. PETERSBURG. (Russia, 1916; this translation, 1995). **.
This translation was by David McDuff for Penguin Publications of what is called a long-neglected masterpiece. The translation, as far as I can tell, is an excellent one, but must have been most difficult. This is a kind of novel that revolves around the happenings of one single day. The basic plot is that the son of a diplomat, Nikolai Apollonovich, has been chosen to assassinate a high ranking official – his father, Apollon A...more
This translation was by David McDuff for Penguin Publications of what is called a long-neglected masterpiece. The translation, as far as I can tell, is an excellent one, but must have been most difficult. This is a kind of novel that revolves around the happenings of one single day. The basic plot is that the son of a diplomat, Nikolai Apollonovich, has been chosen to assassinate a high ranking official – his father, Apollon A...more
Oct 26, 2007
Matthew
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Pip-pip-pop-popovich and people who think Kant is right.
Shelves:
from-russia-with-love
I found an excerpt of this in some random Russian lit reader. Five pages and I was hooked. I scoured bookstores until I finally located it (at the time, I couldn't even find it at Amazon). And I devoured it.
Like the works of Gogol, Bulgakov and Dostoevsky, Bely's writing seems to straddle the line of reality and the absurd. At times blatantly humours, at times deeply philosophical, this book represents what for me is darn close to the ideal novel.
Like the works of Gogol, Bulgakov and Dostoevsky, Bely's writing seems to straddle the line of reality and the absurd. At times blatantly humours, at times deeply philosophical, this book represents what for me is darn close to the ideal novel.
Wonderfully weird. Incredibly Russian. A tongue-in-cheek look at postmodernism (to some extent), but a masterful work of postmodernism in itself. I almost did my thesis on this book...the imagery and insane number of references to anything spherical (a ticking bomb and the rotating, thriving planet are the two driving forces of the story) has stayed with me for years. The translator's notes and the introduction are a MUST read!
если "мы" замятина имеет смысл читать после пинчона для того, чтобы найти возможные точечные заимствования и влияния, то "петербург" белого весь может служить подлежащим ключом к "радуге" - там вся ткань пропитана будущим пинчоном: темы, образы, поэтика, архитектура, символы. не скажу, что он поможет понять "радугу", но дополнительные измерения от текстуального сопоставления двух романов приобретут оба. мне как читателю особенно отрадно было вновь ощутить родной язык как приключение - далеко не...more
Petersburg, Petersburg!
Sediment of mist, you have pursued me too with idle cerebral play: you are a cruel-hearted tormenter; you are a restless ghost; for years you used to assail me; I would run along your terrible Prospects and my impetus would carry me up on to that cast-iron bridge which starts from the edge of the world and leads to the limitless distance; beyond the Neva, in the green distance of the other world -- the ghosts of islands and houses rose, seducing me with the vain hope that...more
Sediment of mist, you have pursued me too with idle cerebral play: you are a cruel-hearted tormenter; you are a restless ghost; for years you used to assail me; I would run along your terrible Prospects and my impetus would carry me up on to that cast-iron bridge which starts from the edge of the world and leads to the limitless distance; beyond the Neva, in the green distance of the other world -- the ghosts of islands and houses rose, seducing me with the vain hope that...more
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Jul 09, 2007
Itai Miller
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Dostoevsky and Joyce fans
I like it, I like it a lot. But whenever reading Russian literature I just feel like an outsider. I want to enjoy the language and the puns and the clever plays on words that I know I'm missing out on.
There are a few elements missing from this novel, there's a level of developmental suppression. I wouldn't put Biely up with Tolstoy or Dostoevsky but he's definitely underrated and under-read.
There are a few elements missing from this novel, there's a level of developmental suppression. I wouldn't put Biely up with Tolstoy or Dostoevsky but he's definitely underrated and under-read.
I read this book because I've been on a Modernist Russian kick at the moment, and no less than Vladimir Nabokov called this novel one of the four greatest prose works of the 20th Century alongside Ulysses, Kafka's Metamorphosis and A La Recherche du Temps Perdu. That's a massive claim which this novel absolutely fails to live up to in my opinion. There must be a lot that is lost in translating this into English because I thought it wasn't just average, I thought it was bad. I don't know why this...more
Es de esos libros mucho más grandes que uno mismo, uno de esos libros que uno duda merecer, de esos que merecen mejores lectores. Como La Dádiva, de Nabokov, merecería un lector experto en literatura rusa, capaz de captar las referencias a Gogol, Dostoievski, Chejov, etc., que llenan la novela. También se pierde mucho en la traducción (Akal o Alfaguara). De todas formas sí se disfruta de una forma de narrar visionaria, un modo de aproximarse a la realidad más capaz de retratarla en su complejida...more
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A joyful, poetic celebration/explosion of all the wonderful and overdone themes of Russian/Petersburg literature. Unbe-fucking-lievable.
p.s. nabokov called this one of the four great novels of the 20th c. the other three are ulysses, the metamorphosis, and "the first half of" in search of lost time. czech it motherfuckers.
p.s. nabokov called this one of the four great novels of the 20th c. the other three are ulysses, the metamorphosis, and "the first half of" in search of lost time. czech it motherfuckers.
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Finished reading this last night and have been mulling over what to say. Read through the other reviews and was struck by the wide range of reactions. I'm now tempted to discuss the book as a cipher--there are so many layers to it that you can find pretty much anything you want to--but calling a Symbolist novel a symbol seems way too easy, particulary since Bely, for all his talk about cerebral play and thoughts thinking themselves, clearly had some real things in mind, although he was more inte...more
this book will make your mind bend...not very well known because it was prevented from being published during the Soviet Union...Nabakov even said that the greatest masterpieces of the twentieth century included Ulysses, Transformation,Petersburg, and the first half of Proust's fairy tale In Search of Lost Time....you decide
Nabokov called this was one of his favorite novels (along with Anna Karenina and Ulysses) so I felt I should like it more than I did. Perhaps I'm just a fool. Or perhaps I don't always have to recognize the genius of what a genius liked in order to appreciate the genius of that genius.
For me, the absolute best thing that came out of Russian Lit class. Known as the classic text of Symbolist literature, the story is a layered and exciting maze, with a bomb at the center. Loved it!
God, how do you 'rate' a modernist classic... The love child of Gogol and Beckett. Nabokov rated it above Ulysses. But he was Nabokov, so caveat emptor.
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Sirs and Madams,
This is the Ulysses of Russian literature. Besides ushering in their high-modernist period, Bely's masterpiece was also a favorite of Nabokov.
N,
V
This is the Ulysses of Russian literature. Besides ushering in their high-modernist period, Bely's masterpiece was also a favorite of Nabokov.
N,
V
Feb 06, 2008
Ilona
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
russophiles, revolutionaries, filmmakers
Fantastic hard edged, modernist fiction from early 20th century Russia on the brink of Revolution. strange, layered, and highly readable
This book was very wierd. In a good way. I really enjoyed reading it, but it's very wierd. Hilarious at times, but often very wierd.
Notas sobre a versão portuguesa.
O livro está sem duvida bem escrito. Andrei Béli revela-se uma pessoa muito culta e cheia de imaginação. Mas o enredo nunca me deixou com vontade de não parar de o ler como acontece nos livros que realmente me apaixonam. Embora evidentemente não conheça a versão original do livro, não creio que o meu relativo desapontamento se deva à tradução, a qual que me pareceu excelente.
__________________________________________
Notes on the Portuguese version.
The book is und...more
O livro está sem duvida bem escrito. Andrei Béli revela-se uma pessoa muito culta e cheia de imaginação. Mas o enredo nunca me deixou com vontade de não parar de o ler como acontece nos livros que realmente me apaixonam. Embora evidentemente não conheça a versão original do livro, não creio que o meu relativo desapontamento se deva à tradução, a qual que me pareceu excelente.
__________________________________________
Notes on the Portuguese version.
The book is und...more
This book is almost perfect and should be read by everyone.
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My favorite book I've yet read. Utterly majestic.
Nov 16, 2010
Dwight
added it
http://bookcents.blogspot.com/2010/11...
What an amazing, strange, wonderful, funny, frustrating, magical book. Needless to say, I highly recommend it. So what have you heard about Petersburg? Vladimir Nabokov declared it one of the most important works of the twentieth century, but he also stated no good English translation was available. I have no idea whether or not the 2009 Pushkin Press edition that I read, with translation by John Elsworth, corrects that deficiency. Even if the language onl...more
What an amazing, strange, wonderful, funny, frustrating, magical book. Needless to say, I highly recommend it. So what have you heard about Petersburg? Vladimir Nabokov declared it one of the most important works of the twentieth century, but he also stated no good English translation was available. I have no idea whether or not the 2009 Pushkin Press edition that I read, with translation by John Elsworth, corrects that deficiency. Even if the language onl...more
1 like · like · see review
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Cyrillic profile: Андрей Белый
Andrei Bely was a Russian novelist, poet, theorist, and literary critic. His miasmal and profoundly disturbing novel Petersburg was regarded by Vladimir Nabokov as one of the four greatest novels of the twentieth century.
Nikolai Bugaev was well known for his influential philosophical essays, in which he decried geometry and probability and trumpeted the virtues of har...more
More about Andrey Bely...
Andrei Bely was a Russian novelist, poet, theorist, and literary critic. His miasmal and profoundly disturbing novel Petersburg was regarded by Vladimir Nabokov as one of the four greatest novels of the twentieth century.
Nikolai Bugaev was well known for his influential philosophical essays, in which he decried geometry and probability and trumpeted the virtues of har...more
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“People as such do not exist: they are all 'things conceived”
—
3 people liked it
“As ruas de Petersburgo possuem uma propriedade indubitável - a de transformar transeuntes em sombras.”
—
2 people liked it
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