Aksakov, Gorky, Herzen, Paustovsky, and Other Autobiography in Russian

[Extollager]

Somewhere I have seen some non-Russian reader exclaim with wonder about why Russians write such good autobiography. Here's a place to discuss any such writing, including writing by authors who were born in what's now Ukraine, etc. I'll introduce four of these writers below, but I hope we can discuss others as well.

Sergei Aksakov (1791-1859) wrote a trilogy I recommend warmly (particularly the middle volume): A Russian Gentleman, Years of Childhood, A Russian Schoolboy. My understanding is that J. D. Duff's translations are considered to be remarkably good. These were issued in Oxford World's Classics editions a while ago. In English we also have Notes of a Provincial Wildfowler and Notes on Fishing.

Sergey Aksakov - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Maxim Gorky (1868-1936)

I haven't read much yet by this author, but I enjoyed his Reminiscences of Tolstoy, Chekhov, and Andreyev.

Maxim Gorky - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Alexander Herzen (1812-1870)

I liked Childhood, Youth, and Exile a fair bit.
Alexander Herzen - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Konstantin Paustovsky (1892-1968)

He wrote Story of a Life in six volumes, which were published in England by Harvill some years ago. I am rereading the first volume, Childhood and Schooldays, with satisfaction right now, and expect to continue from it to the next volume. I have the whole set, but I haven't seen a lot about it, so I'm not sure it will prove to hold my interest throughout all of the books.

Konstantin Paustovsky - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It sounds like the whole set of books will prove to be worth reading:

venus febriculosa» Blog Archive » konstantin paustovsky, the story of a life

 

[GOLLUM]

I know next to nothing on this topic.

Thank you for bringing it to the attention of the forum and I look forward to reading anything further you might post.

 

[Extollager]

Have finished a leisurely second reading of Paustovsky's Story of a Life: Childhood and Schooldays, and am confirmed in my sense that this should be recognized as a 20th-century classic. I've never encountered anyone, so far as I remember, who has read it. It must be really something in the original language! It concludes with a wonderful description of hot summer weather in the country and storms, and of a village chemist with advice for the young aspiring writer. I won't wait long to start the second volume (of six! Can he possibly keep it up?).

By the way, if a Chrons moderator would change "in Russian" in my thread title to "by Russians," I'd be grateful, as that would be more accurate and less off-putting.

 

[Extollager]

As I wrote in 2016: "if a Chrons moderator would change "in Russian" in my thread title to "by Russians," I'd be grateful, as that would be more accurate and less off-putting."

New business:

The New York Review of Books quality paperback series has published a large chunk of Paustovsky's autobiography. I have it as five books with a different translator. I've read the first two (the first one twice). "A more gloriously life-affirming book is unlikely to emerge this year." -- from a British review.

The Story of a Life

One of the most famous works of Russian literature, a memoir about a writer's coming of age during World War I, the Russian Civil War, and the rise of the Soviet era. This is the first unabridged translation of the first three books of Konstantin Paustovsky's magnum opus.

www.nyrb.com

Reviewer Gary Saul Morson seems to me a good writer on Russian literature. Unfortunately it seems I can't give more than the opening of the text. But American Chronsters should be able to find the whole thing in the WSJ's very good "Review" section for 4-5 Feb. at a library.

A Lifetime of Wonders
By Gary Saul Morson

Now mostly forgotten, Konstantin Paustovsky (1892-1968) was once as well-known as Boris Pasternak or Vladimir Nabokov. In 1964 Orville Prescott, a critic for the New York Times, called Paustovsky’s multivolume memoir, “The Story of a Life,” one of Russian literature’s finest works; he dismissed the greater popular response to Pasternak’s “Doctor Zhivago” as a “cosmic literary injustice.” After Paustovsky’s death, the Times Literary Supplement proclaimed him “the Russian Proust.” A few years earlier, Paustovsky had been backed for the Nobel Prize in Literature by Anders Österling, the Swedish Academy permanent secretary, until Paustovsky’s candidacy was derailed by fear of offending the Soviet government (already angry at the awarding of the prize to Pasternak). The Swedish ambassador to Moscow warned that giving the prize to Paustovsky would create a major diplomatic incident.

Never a dissident, Paustovsky maintained his independence by refusing to sign denunciations of others, never joining the Communist Party and, above all, writing works that, as a disapproving Soviet critic observed, were “filled with lots of liberal kindliness and very little revolutionary wrath.” The author of numerous stories, novels, screenplays, dramas and children’s books, Paustovsky achieved the greatest renown for his autobiography. The new paperback volume from New York Review...