Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History of Russia - Hardcover

Figes, Orlando

4.24

3,958 ratings by Goodreads

9780713995176: Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History of Russia

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0713995173 ISBN 13: 9780713995176

Publisher: Allen Lane, 2002

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This tremendously attractive, ambitious, dizzying book is in every way a worthy successor to Figes' bestselling A PEOPLE'S TRAGEDY. The whole panorama of Russia's mighty culture is conjured up in a way that is fresh, intimate and immediate. Whether talking about music or novels, buildings or paintings, Figes' enthusiasm and literary brilliance sweeps the reader along through a series of great set-piece chapters. It is not an exaggeration to say that this will be the literary non-fiction event of the autumn.

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Review:

As epic and ambitious as his first book A People's Tragedy, Orlando Figes's Natasha's Dance is a sweeping panorama of Russian culture over the centuries. It takes its title from a scene in War and Peace in which the upper-crust Natasha Rostov, visiting her countrified "Uncle", falls instinctively into the rhythms of a peasant dance. Figes finds in this scene an ideal metaphor for his book's central theme--the perpetual see-sawing between the European cultural ideals of the aristocracy in St Petersburg and an "authentic" Russianess, usually seen as embodied in the peasantry and the country. The great debate in Russian culture has been between those who have seen it as a naturally "Western" society and those who have seen its destiny as lying in the East and its vast hinterland.

Around this supporting central theme, Figes has constructed an imposing edifice. The range of his knowledge and the sureness with which he deploys it are very impressive. Whether writing about the music of Stravinsky and Shostakovich or the novels of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, the buildings of St Petersburg or the poetry of Akhmatova, he has something new and original to say. The great cultural achievements of Russia often seem, for those who have only a little knowledge of Russian history, like giant mountains suddenly rising out of featureless terrain. Figes's excellent book gives them a context and fills out many of the details of the surrounding landscape.--Nick Rennison

Review:

"In this excellent book Orlando Figes gives us...the sight, sound and flavour of several ‘Russias’, glimpsed from various angles..." -- Literary Review, October 1, 2002 (by Lindsey Hughes)

"One of those books that, at times, makes you wonder how you have so far managed to do without it." -- Independent on Sunday, October 6, 2002 (by Robin Buss)

"This fascinating and important book by the author of that widely acclaimed work, A People’s Tragedy, is a remarkable achievement." -- Sunday Times, November 10, 2002 (by Antony Beevor)

"This wide-ranging history of Russia is one of the publishing events of the year." -- Sunday Times Culture, September 15, 2002

"Written beautifully with striking wit...this superb, flamboyant and masterful tour d’horizon is fun, anecdotal and fascinating, colourful and playful." -- Financial Times, September 22, 2002 (by Simon Sebag Montefiore)

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