Pushkin House, 5a Bloomsbury Square, WC1A 2TA 17 June, 7.30 pm
http://www.pushkinhouse.org/events/
NADEZHDA TEFFI - SUBTLY WORDED
Anne-Marie Jackson and Robert Chandler, the two main translators of
SUBTLY WORDED ( a new collection of Teffi's stories from the Pushkin
Press) will talk about her life and work.
"I?m just worried about the postscript,? I remarked timidly.
?It does somehow seem a bit rude.?
?That?s as it should be. We don?t want people getting
themselves shot because of you and your endearments.?
Teffi (1872-1952) was a literary star in pre-revolutionary Russia,
admired not only by many other great writers but also by Tsar Nicholas
II and Vladimir Lenin. These stories, taken from the whole of her
career, show the full range of her gifts. A wry and perceptive social
commentator, she is also capable, as capable even as Chekhov, of
miraculous subtlety and depth of character. There are stories here
from her own life (as a child, going to meet Tolstoy to plead for the
life of War and Peace's Prince Bolkonsky, or, much later, her strange,
charged meetings with the already-legendary Rasputin). There are
stories of émigré society, its members "held together by mutual
repulsion". There are stories of people misunderstanding each other or
misrepresenting themselves. And throughout there is a sly, sardonic
wit and a deep, compelling intelligence.
Born in 1872 into a prominent St Petersburg family, Teffi left
Bolshevik Russia in 1919. She eventually settled in Paris, where she
became an important figure in the émigré literary scene, and where she
lived until her death in 1952. In her lifetime Teffi published
countless stories, plays and feuilletons. After her death, she was
gradually forgotten, but during the last twenty years she has been
rediscovered by Russian readers. Now she once again enjoys critical
acclaim and a wide readership in her motherland.
--
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