Publisher Description

'The people are silent' So ends Pushkin's great historical drama Boris Godunov, in which Boris's reign as Tsar witnesses civil strife and intrigue, brutality and misery. Its legacy is an uncertain future for the new Tsar whose inauguration is met with devastating silence by the people. Pushkin's dramatic work displays a scintillating variety of forms, from the historical to the metaphysical and folkloric. AfterBoris Godunov, they evolved into Pushkin's own unique, condensed transformations of Western European themes and traditions. The fearful amorality of A Scene from Faust is followed by the four Little Tragedies which confront greed,envy, lust, and blasphemy , while Rusalka is a tragedy of a different kind - a lyric fairytale of despair and transformation. James E. Falen's verse translations of Pushkin's dramas are here accompanied by an Introduction by Caryl Emerson on Russia's most cosmopolitan playwright. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volumereflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text,up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Author Biography

James E. Falen has translated Eugene Onegin for OWC. Caryl Emerson is the author of books on Mikhail Bakhtin, a biography of Musorgsky in CUP's 'Musical Lives' series, and the co-author of The Uncensored Boris Godunov (University of Wisconsin Press, 2006) which includes a new translation of Boris Godunov by Antony Wood. Her Introduction to Russian Literature is due from CUP in 2007.

Table of Contents

Boris GodunovA Scene from FaustThe Miserly KnightMozart and SalieriThe Stone GuestA Feast in Time of PlagueRusalka (The Water-Nymph)

Long Description

'The people are silent' So ends Pushkin's great historical drama Boris Godunov, in which Boris's reign as Tsar witnesses civil strife and intrigue, brutality and misery. Its legacy is an uncertain future for the new Tsar whose inauguration is met with devastating silence by the people. Pushkin's dramatic work displays a scintillating variety of forms, from the historical to the metaphysical and folkloric. After
Boris Godunov, they evolved into Pushkin's own unique, condensed transformations of Western European themes and traditions. The fearful amorality of A Scene from Faust is followed by the four Little Tragedies which confront greed,
envy, lust, and blasphemy , while Rusalka is a tragedy of a different kind - a lyric fairytale of despair and transformation. James E. Falen's verse translations of Pushkin's dramas are here accompanied by an Introduction by Caryl Emerson on Russia's most cosmopolitan playwright. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume
reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text,
up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Feature

This is the only edition to combine Pushkin's most famous play, Boris Godunov with The Little Tragedies, Rusalka and A Scene from Faust and is the most comprehensive edition of Pushkin's dramatic works.
James E. Falen's translations of Pushkin are widely admired and his OWC translation of Eugene Onegin is considered the best.
Falen's verse translations are accompanied by a first-rate introduction from Caryl Emerson, an equally distinguished Russianist, which emphasizes the cosmopolitan nature of Pushkin's drama, the position of Russian culture on the European stage, together with excellent analyses of the individual works in the volume.
The edition displays all aspects of Pushkin's dramatic genius: historical, metaphysical, and folklorist.
Musorgsky's opera, based on Boris Godunov, is frequently performed.

Details