"Galina Rylkova’s Breaking Free from Death is a deeply personal study of Chekhov and Tolstoi and their respective legacies. The book is steeped in the author’s intimate knowledge not only of the writers’ fictional writings but also their epistolary heritage. While the book is aimed at a broad audience, specialists in the field will discover many new and intellectually provocative ways to think about these famous Russian writers."
—Denis A. Zhernokleyev, Vanderbilt University, Slavonic and East European Review
“Rylkova’s meticulous study is full of original insights and new interpretations of famous literary works, delivered in a lucid and accessible writing style, with numerous references to primary sources; it is a joy to read. Furthermore, she supplies her readers with a clear road map throughout the book, explaining her next steps and intentions at every turn. Her narrative is thought-provoking even when one disagrees with her. … In general, it is perhaps an ungrateful task to try to disentangle the inner workings of a personality, especially that of genius. However, one can hope to add yet another facet to complement the existing picture. Rylkova’s book, in my view, does just that—and does so with elegance—supplying another jigsaw piece to our understanding of Russian literary giants and their legacy. Only through the resulting multifaceted perspective can we hope for a holistic grasp of the subject, and of human condition in general.”
—Olga Tabachnikova, University of Central Lancashire, Russian Review
“Rylkova provides a great deal of excerpts from letters, diaries, primary texts, and critical and philosophical sources, almost too many, as they sometimes drown out the scholar’s voice. Each chapter in the book might be read independently; they seem to be the products of years of careful reading (and teaching) the beloved texts that the author now assembled and brought under a theoretical umbrella. The theoretical apparatus is eclectic in a good way: from Edward Becker’s Denial of Death to Arthur Schopenhauer, to Edward Said, to the Chinese Book of Changes, to Virginia Wolf’s Art of Biography. All this makes for a satisfying reading, an invitation to reconsider writers’ relationship with mortality and our continuing relationship with them.”
— Lyudmila Parts, Slavic Review
