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In 1922, while in Berlin, Bely substantially revised the text and had it republished.

"The original Russian language version was published by Sirin in 1913 in a Miscellany and in 1916 in book form. Consult that site if you wish to read his thoughts on the book, but this is a helpful short summary of its publishing (and English translation) history: I have read about one-third of it and find it difficult, rewarding, and absolutely fascinating.įor what it may be worth, the following is taken from The Modern Novel website. I can see why many consider it a precursor to Ulysses. I spent three weeks in Russia years ago am even very grateful for the one short week I spent in SPB simply because it helps me situate landmarks in my mind and gives me just the briefest sense of some of what Bely writes about.Īll this said, I can see why Nabokov-otherwise a critic I find myself frequently disagreeing with-considered it one of the four great works of the 20th century. One would have to live there-for a long time. Petersburg history, the cultural references.so much of this book depends upon the texture of Russian life that I cannot imagine ever learning enough of the language. Not only the nuances and wordplay-which are as frequent as they are essential-but the knowledge of Russian and St. Bely drastically cut and revised the book as first published and what Maguire and Malmstad translated is a completely different book than what McDuff translated.) Their notes are very extensive, detailed, occasionally pedantic, and absolutely indispensable.Īlthough I am sympathetic to Liam's notion of learning Russian to read this, the fact remains that one could never learn Russian sufficiently well to truly understand this book. (It is worth pointing out how significantly the different translations are also translations of what amount to different books. I eventually chose Maguire and Malmstad and have been extremely happy with my choice for the most part. I spent a lot of time choosing among the several options available for reading a translation into English.