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One of the greatest Russian poets of the twentieth century, Marina Tsvetaeva (1892-1941) produced work whose originality and diversity has not until now been fully acknowledged. This important study examines in depth her entire poetic output, paying particular attention to the appropriation, and frequent distortion, of familiar literary material in her lyrical, dramatic, and narrative verse.Major chapters are devoted to the long narrative poems, the mature lyric verse, and the verse plays, on which very little so far has been written. Extensive quotations appear in the original Russian, and Michael Makin has supplied fresh translations of much of the verse. ... Read more

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This study rehabilitates Tsvetaeva as a serious, innovative ethical thinker who developed an ethics for the poet that could dispense with universal value guarantees. For Tsvetaeva, ethical judgements had to be individual rather than universal, open to revision rather than permanent. Examining her ideational background, the study sheds new light on the pre-exile years, when Tsvetaeva suffered from a profound uncertainty about the moral nature and duty of the poet. It identifies the experience of exile as a catalyst for the development of her ethical thought that culminated in 'Iskusstvo pri svete sovesti'. Considering Tsvetaeva's application of her ethics in her life, this study reveals her emphasis on the personal to be the direct result of her ethical belief in individual judgements. Her conscious effort persistently to counteract dominant political ideologies similarly stems from her ethical suspicion of any kind of claim on universal truth. Finally the study assesses the significance of Tsvetaeva's suicide, revealing it to be the inevitable, terrifying consequence of her ethical self-definition, her commitment to individual freedom, and the pursuit of higher truths. ... Read more

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"Still, we have the same solitude, the same journeys and searching, and the same favorite turns in the labyrinth of literature and history."-Boris Pasternak to Marina Tsvetaeva

One of the most compelling episodes of twentieth-century Russian literature involves the epistolary romance that blossomed between the modernist poets Marina Tsvetaeva and Boris Pasternak in the 1920s. Only weeks after Tsvetaeva emigrated from Russia in 1922, Pasternak discovered her poetry and sent her a letter of praise and admiration. Tsvetaeva's enthusiastic response began a decade-long affair, conducted entirely through letters. This correspondence-written across the widening divide separating Soviet Russia from Russian émigrés in continental Europe-offers a view into the overlapping worlds of literary creativity, sexual identity, and political affiliation. Following both sides of their conversation, Catherine Ciepiela charts the poets' changing relations to each other, to the extraordinary political events of the period, and to literature itself. The Same Solitude presents the first full account of this affair of letters and poems from its beginning in the summer of 1922 to its denouement in the 1930s.

Drawing on many previously untranslated letters and poems, Ciepiela describes the poets' mutual influence, both in the course of their lives and the development of their art. Neither poet saw any separation between a poet's life and work, and Ciepiela treats each poet's letters and poems as a single text. She discusses the poets' famous triangular correspondence with Rainer Maria Rilke in 1926, and she addresses the profound significance of Tsvetaeva for Pasternak, who is often perceived (mistakenly, Ciepiela asserts) as the more detached partner. Further, this book expands our understanding of poetic modernism by showing how the poets worked through ideas about gender and writing in the context of what they themselves called a literary "marriage." ... Read more

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This book is a major critical biography of the poet Maria Tsvetaeva by one of the foremost authorities on her work. it draws on a profusion of recent documentation and research, (some of it hitherto unpublished) and encompasses the whole course of her life. Professor Karlinsky is careful to supply the reader with the necessary context for understanding the work by setting out the historical, political, and literary background against which Tsvetaeva's life and literary development evolved. A particular feature of the book is a discussion of Tsvetaeva's relationships with her literary contemporaries, especially Mandelstam, Rilke, Akhmatova, Pasternak, and Mayakovsky. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A solid biography but a lacking critical commentary
Simon Karlinsky's MARINA TSVETAEVA: The Woman, Her World, and Her Poetry is a biography of this Russian poetess who after initial fame experience tragedy and exile and died, in tragic suicide and decades before her time, in some of the darkest days of Soviet history.

The biographical element of the book is well-written. We are taken from Tsetaeva's birth to her untimely death. Her numerous infidelities which had great influence on her writing--including her two lesbian affairs long neglected in Soviet scholarship--are detailed. Karlinsky's attempt to explain Tsetaeva's world is also generally commendable. He shows the social circles in which the poet moved in Moscow and in exile in Berlin, Prague, and Paris, tracking her intersections with numerous other intellectuals. The work betrays its Cold War origins in criticizing the Soviet Union at every opportunity. While Communism was a barbaric system partly responsible for Tsvetaeva's end, it often seems like the author is going out of his way to take a shot at it. Karlinsky's final aim, to cover her poetry, is mostly unrealised. While some large poems, especially ones difficult to understand such as "On a Red Steed", are covered, most of her oeuvre is neglected. Stand-out gems such as "Night of the Soul" are missing completely.

For lovers of literature interested in this great poet, I would recommend Karlinsky's MARINA TSETAEVA. However, one should also acquire critical commentary on her works in order to compensate for Karlinsky's meagre treatment. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Terrific versions of some great Russian poems
Very good translations of the great, hard-to-translate Russian poet. The six long poems that comprise the collection, On a Red Steed, Poem of the Mountain, An Attempt at a Room, Poem of the End, New Year's Greetings, and Poem of the Air, retain the compressed power of Tsvetaeva's short poems.Tsvetaeva's tormented spirit shines through. There is also good selection of Tsvetaeva's short poems in the back. A must read for all who love modern Russian poetry. ... Read more