The White Guard

by Mikhail Bulgakov, Roger Cockrell (Translator)

Overview

The setting is Kiev in 1918, a time of revolution, turmoil and civil war. The Germans have occupied the city, Petlyura's Socialists are camped outside awaiting their moment, while the Bolsheviks watch, contemplating their buried armaments. The once wealthy Turbin family are in anguish as their world grows smaller and smaller. Called a modern classic by C. P. Snow, this novel first appared in 1923, and was banned by Stalin in the '30s.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780795348259
Publisher:	RosettaBooks
Publication date:	10/01/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	310
Sales rank:	408,366
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Marian Schwartz is a prize-winning translator of Russian who recently received her second Translation Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts to translate Olga Slavnikova’s newest novel, 2017. She has translated classic literary works by Nina Berberova and Yuri Olesha, as well as Edvard Radzinsky’s The Last Tsar. Evgeny Dobrenko is professor in the Department of Russian and Slavonic Studies at the University of Sheffield. He is author, editor, or coeditor of more than fifteen books, including Political Economy of Socialist Realism. 

Editorial Reviews

"...infused with a pssion for the old city and for its people that catches the reader up in its sweeping intensity....His characters have a classic universality that has kept them alive for half a century."

New York Times Book Review

"...(he) unfurls great fictional canvases conjuring up the atmosphere and beauty of his beloved Kiev (like) Pushkin...but beneath the effulgent lyricism there sounds a chunk of cynicism..Bulgakov's irony is both broad and finely honed."

Newsweek

Nicholas Boulton gives yet another splendid narration of a Russian classic in this production of Bulgakov's first major work. While Bulgakov is best known for THE MASTER AND MARGARITA, this novel depicts a Russian family, the Turbins, in Kiev during the winter of 1918-19. The Turbins must thread the needle as they deal with Bolshevik revolutionaries, counterrevolutionary Whites, Ukrainian nationalists, and occupying German troops. The novel has a number of semiautobiographical elements, and some scenes are quite vivid in portraying the horrors the Revolution and Civil War brought to the remains of the Russian Empire. Boulton ably affects different accents for various characters--soldiers, officers, peasants, and others. His pacing and enunciation are perfect for both narration and dialogue. M.T.F. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

MARCH 2023 - AudioFile

Nicholas Boulton gives yet another splendid narration of a Russian classic in this production of Bulgakov's first major work. While Bulgakov is best known for THE MASTER AND MARGARITA, this novel depicts a Russian family, the Turbins, in Kiev during the winter of 1918-19. The Turbins must thread the needle as they deal with Bolshevik revolutionaries, counterrevolutionary Whites, Ukrainian nationalists, and occupying German troops. The novel has a number of semiautobiographical elements, and some scenes are quite vivid in portraying the horrors the Revolution and Civil War brought to the remains of the Russian Empire. Boulton ably affects different accents for various characters--soldiers, officers, peasants, and others. His pacing and enunciation are perfect for both narration and dialogue. M.T.F. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

MARCH 2023 - AudioFile