White Guard
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: June 28, 2008
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 352
ISBN-13: 9780300122428
Subjects: Modern fiction; Fiction; Fiction - General; Russian & Former Soviet Union; Fiction / General; Historical - General; History; Revolution, 1917-1921; Ukraine; War stories
Description: "White Guard, Mikhail Bulgakov's semi-autobiographical first novel, is the story of the Turbin family in Kiev in 1918. Alexei, Elena, and Nikolka Turbin have just lost their mother - their father had died years before - and find themselves plunged into the chaotic civil war that erupted in the Ukraine in the wake of the Russian Revolution. In the context of this family's personal loss and the social turmoil surrounding them, Bulgakov creates a brilliant picture of the existential crises brought about by the revolution and the loss of social, moral, and political certainties. He confronts the reader with the bewildering cruelty that ripped Russian life apart at the beginning of the last century as well as with the extraordinary ways in which the Turbins preserved their humanity. In this volume Marian Schwartz, a leading translator, offers the first complete and accurate translation of the definitive original text of Bulgakov's novel. She includes the famous dream sequence, omitted in previous translations, and beautifully solves the stylistic issues raised by Bulgakov's ornamental prose. Readers with an interest in Russian literature, culture, or history will welcome this superb translation of Bulgakov's important early work. This edition also contains an informative historical essay by Evgeny Dobrenko."--Book description, Amazon.com.