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3.0 

A Family Chronicle

By Sergei Aksakov & Michael R. Katz &
A Family Chronicle by Sergei Aksakov & Michael R. Katz &  digital book - Fable

Publisher Description

A Family Chronicle (1856) is Sergei Aksakov's blend of memoir and fiction that tells the story of one Russian family relocating from the city to Russia's eastern frontier in the steppes of Bashkiria. It is an attempt to record oral tradition in writing and occupies a unique place in the history of the nineteenth-century Russian narrative.

Aksakov has been called a "genius of reminiscences." This work is unmatched for its meticulous and realistic description of the everyday life of the Russian nobility and was well received by the literary greats of nineteenth-century Russian literature. It has also been said to contain a remarkably honest depiction of human psychology. With this edition of A Family Chronicle, the acclaimed translator Michael R. Katz improves upon the two earlier English versions (both now out of print).

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1 Review

3.0
“I was actually unimpressed with the introduction of the author's grandfather, but slowly came to appreciate the 'autobiography' with the author's introduction of his parents. His sketches were both ingenuous and unaffected, and I loved how he portrayed the imbalance of character between his parents: his father, Alexei, was a simpleton who loved dearly and deeply, while his mother, the redoubtable Sofia, was most probably a genius who nevertheless tried her best to love her less intelligent husband the best that she could. If she existed today, Sofia would have married much later. Being well-read, intelligent, and beautiful, she'd have the pick of the best men extant nowadays. It was amusing how both of them made their marriage work despite their disagreements: the author deftly illustrates that marriage is both a decision and a commitment. Despite Sofia and Alexei's poor match, they managed to make the marriage work through silence and compromise, and the ending was both ballsy and well-written: the family chronicle ends with the author's birth.”

About Sergei Aksakov

Michael R. Katz is C. V. Starr Professor Emeritus at Middlebury College, where he retired from full-time teaching in 2010. He has written two monographs and translated more than twenty novels from Russian into English. Previously he also taught at Williams College and the University of Texas at Austin.

Marcus C. Levitt is Professor Emeritus of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Southern California. His book, The Visual Dominant in Eighteenth-Century Russia, was awarded the 2012 Marc Raeff Book Prize, from the Eighteenth-Century Russian Studies Association.

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