Abstract

The Voice of a Giant looks at seven masterpieces of Russian nineteenth-century prose fiction—Pushkin’s “The Queen of Spades”, Lermontov’s “A Hero of Our Time”, Gogol’s “The Greatcoat”, Turgenev’s “Fathers and Sons”, Dostoevsky’s “Notes from Underground”, Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” and Chekhov’s “The Lady with the Dog”.

Each chapter concentrates primarily on a detailed analysis of one of these works but reference is also made to historical background, the seven author’s general attitudes and the distinguishing characteristics of Russian literature.

The book is intended for A-Level students, for first- and second-year undergraduates, and for the general reader exploring the richness and subtlety of a body of writing which has profoundly influenced the modern European consciousness.

Roger Cockrell is Lecturer in Russian at Exeter University. The co-editor of Russian Views of Pushkin (1976), he is at present engaged on a study of the Soviet writer Alexander Fadeev. David Richards is Reader in Russian at Exeter University. His publications include “Zamyatin—A Soviet Heretic” (1962), “Soviet Chess” (1965), “The Penguin Book of Russian Short Stories” (1981) and “Long Ago” (1984), stories by Ivan Bunin, translated from Russian.