Polinka Saks and The Story of Aleksei

by Aleksandr Druzhinin, Michael R. Katz (Introduction), Michael R. Katz

Overview

This volume offers two of Druzhinin's essential works in their first English translations. Polinka Saks, his most essential short novel, is an epistolary tale of a romantic triangle involving an older man, his young wife, and a dashing young prince. The husband attempts to introduce his wife to literature, art, and music, but his efforts run counter to the dominant trend of society, which "forces women to become little children." The wife falls victim to the prince and realizes too late the value of the education provided by her husband.

A far different tale, The Story of Aleksei Dmitrich is a complex social and psychological study of poverty, family disharmony, precocious children, and destructive self-sacrifice.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780810110779
Publisher:	Northwestern University Press
Publication date:	11/19/1992
Series:	European Classics
Edition description:	1
Pages:	225
Product dimensions:	5.12(w) x 7.75(h) x 0.90(d)

Editorial Reviews

In a lithe translation, Katz, a professor of Slavic languages at the University of Texas, recovers two novellas by Druzhinin, a prominent 19th-century Russian author. The first, told in letters, concerns a love triangle consisting of Polinka Saks, a rather mousy young woman; her husband Konstantin, who seeks to educate her in the arts and literature and bring her out of her shell; and the dashing Prince Galitsky, an army officer who had wooed Polinka before her marriage and still loves her. As their relationships evolve, the work becomes an interesting, if modest, study of the various meanings and dimensions of love. In the second novella, Druzhinin explores similar themes through the intense emotional bonds between Aleksei Dmitrich and an angelically beautiful young man, Kostya, and Kostya's equally lovely sister, Vera. Both works are curios, better read in light of the works of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky than for their own merits. Katz provides a useful introduction, ample footnotes and translations of French and German phrases sprinkled through the narratives. (Oct.)

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