Readership: General readers interested in Russian literature and history of Russian culture, students interested in Russian literature, as well as the history of literary forms and ideas in Russian culture. Should capture the interest of anyone attracted to Russian culture through the reading of any of the greats of Russian literature or encountering it in the cinema or at the opera.
Catriona Kelly, Fellow of New College, Oxford, and Tutor in Russian
"It is written in a lively and stimulating manner...and displays a range to which few of Dr. Kelly's peers in the field of Russian scholarship are equal.'" - Dr Philip Cavendish
"This is a brilliant essay, written with elegance, informed, incisive, provocative...[Dr Kelly] is in the forefront of scholars of Russian literature...she will make her readers engage with a wide variety of authors and texts." - Professor Anthony Cross, head of Slavonic Studies Department, Cambridge University
"It seems to me brilliant and original, taking an unexpected approach to the subject, and it is written with great confidence and clarity." - Professor Peter France, University of Edinburgh
Preface 1.: Testament 2.: 'I Have Raised Myself a Monument': Writers Memorials, Writer Cults 3.: 'Tidings of Me Will Go Out over All Great Rus': Pushkin and the Russian Literary Canon 4.: 'I Shall be Famous as long as Another Poet Lives' 5.: 'Awakening Noble Feelings with My Lyre': Russian Writers as 'Masters of Minds' 6.: 'And don't Dispute with Fools': Male and Female Literary Roles from the Salon to the Soyuz pisatele (Union of Writers) 7.: 'Every Tribe and Every Tongue Shall Name Me': Russian Literature and 'Prinitive Culture' 8.: 'O Muse, be Obedient to the Command of God': Writing and the Spiritual and Material Worlds List of Further Reading
