literature
Notes: 48
"Atlas Shrugged"
"Atlas Shrugged" is the fourth and final novel by American writer Ayn Rand, published in 1957.
Byron's Line: "Butchered to Make a Roman Holiday"
The line "Butchered to make a Roman holiday" from Byron's "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" became a symbol of gladiatorial combat. In its Russian…
A Note on the Word "Manda"
The meanings of the word "manda": a vulgar term in Russian, a people and language in Tanzania, an island in Kenya, a town in Bangladesh, and…
"Thanks for Being Alive": a Song by Vladimir Vysotsky
The phrase "say thanks you're alive," which the novel's protagonist hears, refers to one of the most poignant and autobiographical works by Vladimir…
"The Ballad of the Nails" by Nikolai Tikhonov
"The Ballad of the Nails" is a landmark poem by Nikolai Tikhonov, written in 1919 at the height of the Russian Civil War. It celebrates the heroism…
Alexander Blok's Poem "The Twelve"
The poem "The Twelve" was written by Blok in a state of "feverish exaltation" in post-revolutionary Petrograd. The poet later recalled: "During and…
"There's No Sun for Me"
Valery Roslavsky was quoting lines from Vladimir Mayakovsky's poem "Lilichka! Instead of a Letter." The image shows Lilya Brik, who posed for the…
"Toward Death Keep Your Bearing, Poor Singer and Rider": a Line of Verse
Alexander Vvedensky's "Elegy" is a landmark work of the Russian avant-garde, transforming the classical elegy form. Its final lines reflect on time…
Mayakovsky’s Poem «A Talk with Comrade Lenin»
The poem is built as an imagined dialogue between the lyric hero (the poet himself) and a portrait of Lenin. Its composition is circular -- the…
A Quote from Goethe's "Faust"
A quote from Goethe's "Faust," where the hero expresses a longing for truth and understanding of existence through magic, rejecting empty knowledge…
Gorky's Phrase: "A Thing Stronger Than Goethe's Faust"
Stalin praised Maxim Gorky's fairy tale "The Girl and Death," declaring that "this thing is stronger than Goethe's Faust." His words became the…
Alexander Tinyakov: the "Damned Poet" of the Silver Age
Alexander Tinyakov (1886-1934) — the "damned poet" of the Silver Age, author of the scandalous poem "July has come: the bees are fucking." Biography…
Annushka Already Spilled the Oil
The phrase "Annushka already spilled the oil" from Bulgakov's novel "The Master and Margarita" symbolizes the inevitability of fate. Woland speaks it…
Back Without a Hat and Missing a Boot: the Golden Calf allusion behind Roman's border-crossing fantasy
The famous final scene of Ilf and Petrov's "The Golden Calf," where Ostap Bender's escape abroad ends in disaster at the Romanian border.
Bill Driscoll
Bill Driscoll is one of the two protagonists of an O. Henry short story — a small-time con man who, together with his partner Sam Howard, decides to…
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)
Dante Alighieri (full name Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri) was born in Florence in the last third of May, 1265. His fate became tragically…
Dersu Uzala: the real taiga guide behind Roman's bitter joke about "the local Dersu Uzala"
The real Dersu Uzala, the Nanai/Udege hunter and guide who befriended explorer Vladimir Arsenyev and became the subject of Akira Kurosawa's…
The Eclogue: History and Characteristics of the Genre
The eclogue is a genre of bucolic poetry: short pastoral dialogues. It began in Ancient Greece and flourished in Rome with Virgil. It was popular in…
"February! Get Ink and Weep!" by Boris Pasternak
The poem "February! Get Ink and Weep!" was written by Boris Pasternak in 1912, when the poet was only 22 -- one of his earliest and, at the same…
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and His Tragedy "Faust"
"Faust" is Goethe's philosophical tragedy, based on the legend of Dr. Faust, who made a pact with the devil. The protagonist seeks the meaning of…
Grigorovich's Nickel
A literary anecdote about Dostoevsky and Grigorovich illustrates the great writer's drive for expressive prose. He criticized the dry phrase "the…
Grisha Dobrosklonov's Song from Nekrasov's Poem "Who Is Happy in Russia?"
The song appears in the closing part of the poem "A Feast for the Whole World," where the young seminarian Grigory Dobrosklonov reflects on the paths…
Leo Tolstoy's Novella "Hadji Murat": Historical Context and Artistic Significance
Tolstoy's late novella "Hadji Murat," its historical basis in the Caucasian War, and its central image of unconquerable life force.
Igor Severyanin: Overture
This text is a fragment of Igor Severyanin's poem "Pineapples in Champagne," written in 1915. The work captures an atmosphere of unrestrained…
Jean Valjean: Image and Symbol
The name Jean Valjean, invoked ironically in the novel for a French lawyer, refers to the famous literary character who, by the mid-1990s, had become…
Kisa Vorobyaninov After Reading the Right-Hand Column of the Prague Restaurant's Menu
The famous scene from "The Twelve Chairs" where a fallen aristocrat, humiliated by a restaurant menu's prices, becomes the model for Roman's own…
A Line by Poet Konstantin Vaginov
Konstantin Vaginov was a Silver Age poet and prose writer, known for modernist novels and poems about Petersburg. In 1921 he joined the "Guild of…
Mishka Kvakin and "Timur and His Squad"
The garden-thief villain of a beloved 1940 Soviet children's novella, invoked here with bitter irony to describe how the same archetypes of "us…
"The Raven," Edgar Allan Poe's Most Famous Poem
Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" and its refrain "Nevermore," with the full English poem and a note on its celebrated Russian translations.
Ostap Bender and the Law
Ostap Bender is the protagonist of Ilf and Petrov's novels "The Twelve Chairs" and "The Golden Calf," a symbol of the resourceful con man. He claimed…
"I, of Course, Despise My Fatherland from Head to Toe": the Context of Pushkin's Famous Line
The line "I certainly despise my fatherland from head to toe — but it irks me if a foreigner shares this feeling with me," from a private letter by…
Pushkin's Poltava
A reference to Alexander Pushkin's poem "Poltava" (1828), in which Peter the Great is described, before the Battle of Poltava, as "wholly like the…
Samuil Marshak's "February": a Poem About Winter and Patriotism
An analysis of Samuil Marshak's poem "February" (1926): its origins, artistic features, the image of the snake-like snowdrift, its patriotic themes…
Sit-In Chairman Funt
"Zits-predsedatel Funt" ("Sit-In Chairman Funt") is one of the most memorable minor characters in Ilya Ilf and Yevgeny Petrov's novel "The Golden…
A Reference to the Story "Cut Down to Size"
Vasily Shukshin's 1970 story about a village demagogue who "cuts down to size" educated visitors from the city with pseudo-intellectual questions.
Stargorod, Seen From the Village of Chmarovka
The nod to Ilf and Petrov's "The Twelve Chairs" — its fictional backwater town of Stargorod, opened with a shop for coffins on either side of the…
"Unclench Like a Bird of Steel": a Line from Mayakovsky
A short, wry verse by the Russian poet Igor Guberman describes waking up some mornings feeling as alive as a bird wound up like a spring, ready to…
Structural Linguistics and Ferdinand de Saussure
Structural linguistics is a school of language study that examines language as a system of interrelated elements. Its core principle: meaning arises…
The "Superfluous Man" in Russian Literature
The 19th-century literary archetype Roman was just mulling over, and the parade of its most famous incarnations Zhorik sarcastically drafts him into.
The Cheshire Cat's Grin in Lewis Carroll's "Alice"
The Cheshire Cat's grin is an expression from "Alice in Wonderland," tied to the image of the Cheshire Cat, which vanishes leaving only its…
The Ether: from Ancient Philosophy to Modern Technology
Ether is an ancient Greek concept, considered a fifth element alongside earth, water, air, and fire. Aristotle described it as the divine substance…
The Everyday Menu
Mayakovsky's poem "Could You?" (1913) is a landmark work of Russian Futurism, expressing a creative challenge to the mundane. In 1993, invoking…
The First Interplanetary Mathematical Symposium in the History of the Universe
The phrase about "the first interplanetary mathematics symposium in the history of creation" is a direct allusion to a famous episode from Ilya Ilf…
Mikhail Bulgakov's Novel "The Master and Margarita"
"The Master and Margarita" is a novel by Mikhail Bulgakov, written in the 1920s-1940s and published posthumously in 1966-1967. The book interweaves…
The Picaresque Novel: the genre Zhorik jokes is "all written in London now"
From Lazarillo de Tormes to Ostap Bender: the picaresque novel genre, born in an earlier age of upheaval, and why 1990s Russia produced its own…
The Roguish Moscow Reveler
"The Roguish Moscow Reveler" is a line from a poem by Sergei Yesenin, part of his cycle "Moscow of the Taverns" (1922). In it, the poet creates the…
Uriah Heep: an Embodiment of Hypocrisy in "David Copperfield"
Uriah Heep, Charles Dickens's antagonist in David Copperfield, whose false humility became a byword for hypocrisy.
William Shakespeare: the Greatest Playwright of All Time
A detailed biography of William Shakespeare (1564-1616), the world's greatest playwright. His life story, an analysis of his work, and his influence…