The Courilof affair
By: Irène Némirovsky ; translated from the French by Sandra Smith
Publisher: Vintage; Vintage Books
Published: 2008
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 172
ISBN-13: 9780099493983
Subjects: Fiction; History
Description: In 1903, Leon M - a devout terrorist - is given the responsibility of 'liquidating' Valerian Alexandrovitch Courilof, the notoriously brutal and cold-blooded Russian Minister of Education, by the Revolutionary Committee. The assassination, he is told, must take place in public and be in most grandiose manner possible in order to strike the imagination of the people. Posing as his newly appointed personal physician, Leon M takes up residence with Courliof in his summer house in the Iles and awaits instructions.But over the course of his stay he is made privy to the inner world of Courliof - his failing health, his troubled domestic situation and, most importantly, the tyrannical grip that the Czar himself holds over all his Ministers, forcing them to obey him or suffer the most deadly punishments.Set during a period of radical upheaval in European history, "The Courliof Affair" is an unsparing observation of human motives and the abuses of power, an elegy to lost world and an unflinchingly topical cautionary tale.
Notes: This translation originally published: London: Chatto & Windus, 2007.

Translated from the French.