Diaries 1915-1923: Behind the Mask
"Prokofiev had an extremely dry wit, which results in some fine, bitchy one-liners, from his disdain for Mahler's Seventh Symphony ('like kissing a stillborn child') to his fear of the futurist poet Vladimir Mayakovsky ('I always wonder: is he going to hit me, not for any particular reason, just because?') to his pride at being proclaimed 'best-dressed man in Chicago.' At his best he has a gift for the surprising phrase, the unexpected insight and the occasional laugh-out-loud bon mot. . . . This is an impressively edited work, with Anthony Phillips's footnotes, indexing and appendices all scrupulously detailed and informative."-Owen Hatherley, New Statesman, 1 May 2008"Anthony Phillips rises to all the demands made by Prokofiev's lucid but delicately nuanced Russian. His translation is accurate almost without a lapse, his tone is consistently faithful to the original, and from time to time he pulls out something truly brilliant. . . . Dedicated professional that he was, Prokofiev still definitely 'had a life.' The amount of space devoted to his personal relationships and pastimes in the diaries as a whole equals that concerning music, and these subjects are approached with similar relish."-G. S. Smith, Times Literary Supplement, June 20, 2008