Fear and the Muse Kept Watch : The Russian Masters--From Akhmatova and Pasternak to Shostakovich and Eisenstein--under Stalin
Language: English
Published by New Press, The, 2015
- Hardcover
- Used
Seller: Better World Books, Mishawaka, IN, U.S.A.Better World Books
AbeBooks seller since August 3, 2006
Condition: Used - Good
£ 10.04
Quantity: 1 available
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Pages intact with minimal writing/highlighting. The binding may be loose and creased. Dust jackets/supplements are not included. Stock photo provided. Product includes identifying sticker. Better World Books: Buy Books. Do Good.
Seller Inventory # 10224276-75
- Title
- Fear and the Muse Kept Watch : The Russian Masters--From Akhmatova and Pasternak to Shostakovich and Eisenstein--under Stalin
- Author
- McSmith, Andy
- Publisher
- New Press, The
- Publication year
- 2015
- Condition
- Good
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Language
- English
- ISBN 10
- 1595580565
- ISBN 13
- 9781595580566
- Item weight
- 1.409 pounds
- Dimensions
- N/A
For those artists visible enough for Stalin to take an interest in them, it was Stalin himself who decided whether they lived in luxury or were sent to the Lubyanka, the headquarters of the secret police, to be tortured and sometimes even executed. McSmith brings together the stories of these artists―including Isaac Babel, Boris Pasternak, Dmitri Shostakovich, and many others―revealing how they pursued their art under Stalin's regime and often at great personal risk. It was a world in which the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, whose bright yellow tunic was considered a threat to public order under the tsars, struggled to make the communist authorities see the value of avant garde art; Babel publicly thanked the regime for allowing him the privilege of not writing; and Shostakovich's career veered wildly between public disgrace and wealth and acclaim.
In the tradition of Eileen Simpson's Poets in Their Youth and Phyllis Rose's Parallel Lives, Fear and the Muse Kept Watch is an extraordinary work of historical recovery. It is also a bold exploration of the triumph of art during terrible times and a book that will stay with its readers for a long, long while.
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Review
"McSmith writes journalist’s history in the best sense, accounting for persons and events without resorting to theory, psychological or political. With clear-eyed restraint and unsentimental sympathy for the victims, he tells the story of Stalin’s quarter-century effort, ended only by his death, to manage the greatest Russian artists of the time through intimidation, harassment, jailing, torture, and, when circumstances allowed, murder. . . . An invaluable contribution to serious popular history."
Booklist
"The author has a deep affinity for these artists, and his portrayal of their struggles makes our appreciation of them even stronger. . . . Valuable."
Kirkus Reviews
"Revelatory. . . . McSmith . . . has done a masterful job of researching and describing what it was like for writers, musicians and filmmakers to create under one of the most oppressive regimes in history. . . . Using extensive primary and secondary sources, McSmith reveals a remarkable story about art triumphing over evil."
Shelf Awareness
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Better World Books
Mishawaka, IN, U.S.A.
AbeBooks seller since August 3, 2006
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Better World Books (https://www.BetterWorldBooks.com) is a for-profit, socially conscious business and a global online bookseller that collects and sells new and used books online, matching each purchase with a book donation. Each sale generates funds for literacy and education initiatives in the U.S., the UK, and around the world. Since its launch in 2003, Better World Books has raised $33 million for libraries and literacy, donated over 32 million books, and reused or recycled more than 397 million books.…
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