“So far I’ve been reading nothing but Pushkin and am drunk with rapture, every day I discover something new.” - Fyodor Dostoevsky in a letter to his wife, July 1874

Published in the USSR in 1974 gives this edition an unfortunate preface (‘The Soul of Our People’ by the boorish A. Tvardovsky), but aside from that, it’s fantastic. Included are 32 lyrical poems, 2 narrative poems (‘The Gypsies’ and ‘The Bronze Horseman’), 4 dramas (‘The Covetous Knight’, ‘Mozart and Salieri’, ‘The Stone Guest’, and ‘The Water-Nymph’), and 2 tales in verse (‘The Tale of the Fisherman and the Golden Fish’ and ‘The Tale of the Golden Cockerel’). It’s also got 42 color and black and white plates of portraits, relevant paintings, and Pushkin’s own drawings, making it quite a handsome little book indeed.

Highlights:
- ‘The Bronze Horseman,’ a true masterpiece evoking the flood in St. Petersburg in 1824 with indelible imagery and filled with political meaning.

- ‘The Stone Guest,’ echoing Pushkin’s own highly amorous ways and warning that not only is beauty transient, but karma has a way of sneaking up on you.

- ‘The Water-Nymph’, creative and touching, making me think of Repin’s painting ‘Sadko in the Underwater Kingdom’ from The State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, even if this is a different story.

- The poem, ‘To***’, to one of lovers, Anna Kern, and the poems ‘Wintry Road’ and ‘Winter Morning’, which describe the beauty and feeling of riding out in the snow.

The artistry, concision, and deep romanticism come shining through translations which are sometimes a little clunky, and one also sees and feels just how momentous the Decembrist uprising of 1825 was for Pushkin, with so many of his friends executed or exiled, and him narrowly avoiding the same fate. A great book if you can find it. ( )