Dernier voyage

by Gaito Gazdanov

Qui sont-ils, ces émigrés russes réfugiés à Paris dans les années vingt ? Que recherche Sergueï, l'homme intelligent et affable qui pardonne tout, y compris les infidélités de sa femme, Olga ? Quelle chimère poursuivent Lisa, cette femme sans pitié qui succombera à l'amour de son neveu, Sérioja ; Ludmilla, l'aventurière sans scrupule, et Lola, la vieille actrice qui vit dans le souvenir des succès lointains ? Leurs chemins se croisent, les liens se font et se défont. Ils vont et viennent avec vitalité. Le sentiment amoureux mène la danse au mépris de la morale la plus élémentaire. Mais, pour presque tous, l'issue sera tragique et seuls resteront en présence Sérioja et sa mère. Avec un humour féroce, Gazdanov nous dévoile la face secrète de ses personnages et nous décrit l'évolution de leurs sentiments les plus fous.

283 pages, Paperback

First published May 14, 1999

About the author

Gaito Gazdanov (Russian: Гайто Газданов; Ossetian: Гæздæнты Бæппийы фырт Гайто) (1903–1971) was a Russian émigré writer of Ossetian extraction. He was born in Saint Petersburg but was brought up in Siberia and Ukraine, where his father worked as a forester. He took part in the Russian Civil War on the side of Wrangel's White Army. In 1920 he left Russia and settled in Paris, where he was employed in the Renault factories. Gazdanov's first novel — An Evening with Claire (1930) — won accolades from Maxim Gorky and Vladislav Khodasevich, who noted his indebtedness to Marcel Proust. On the strength of his first short stories, Gazdanov was decried by critics as one of the most gifted writers to begin his career in emigration.
Gazdanov's mature work was produced after World War II. His mastery of criminal plots and understanding of psychological detail are in full evidence in his two most popular novels, The Specter of Alexander Wolf and The Return of the Buddha, whose English translations appeared in 1950 and 1951. The writer "excels in creating characters and plots in which cynicism and despair remain in precarious yet convincing balance with a courageous acceptance of life and even a certain joie de vivre." In 1953, Gazdanov joined the Radio Liberty, where he hosted a program about Russian literature until his death.