White Guard

by Mikhail Bulgakov; Translated by Marian Schwartz; With an Introduction by EvgenyDobrenko

• ISBN13: 9780300122428
• ISBN10: 030012242X
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2008-05-28
• Publisher: Yale University Press

Summary

White Guard, Mikhail Bulgakov's semi-autobiographical first novel, revolves around a Ukrainian family in their home city of Kiev in 1918. Alexei, Elena, and Nikolka Turbin, adult siblings who have just lost their mother, find themselves plunged into the chaotic civil war that erupted in the wake of World War I and the Russian Revolution. In the context of this family's saga, Bulgakov recreates not only the moment-to-moment experience of battles, but also the long pauses that come before and after. He confronts the reader with the cruelty and violence that overtakes people and events, yet holds up for contrast individual acts of heroism and humanity. In this volume Marian Schwartz, a leading Russian translator, offers the first complete and accurate translation of the definitive original text of Bulgakov's novel. She includes the famous dream sequence, omitted in previous translations, and addresses the stylistic issues raised by Bulgakov's ornamental prose. Readers with an interest in Russian literature, culture, or history will welcome this superb translation of Bulgakov's important early work. "Great was the year and terrible the Year of Our Lord 1918, the second since the Revolution had begun. Sun had been abundant in the summer, snow in the winter, and two stars had risen particularly high in the sky: Venus, the Evening Star; and Mars, red and quivering. But in years of peace and blood alike the days shoot by like arrows, and in the hard frost the young Turbins had not noticed the onset of shaggy white December. Oh, Father Frost, sparkling with snow and happiness! Mama, radiant queen. Where are you now?"fromThe White Guard

Author Biography

Mikhail Bulgakov (1891–1940) was born in Kiev, Ukraine, and lived most of his adult life in Stalinist Russia. A journalist, playwright, novelist, and short story writer, he is best known in the West for his novel The Master and Margarita. Marian Schwartz is a prize-winning Russian translator who recently received her second Translation Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts to translate Olga Slavnikova’s newest novel, 2017.  She has translated classic literary works by Nina Berberova and Yuri Olesha, as well as Edvard Radzinsky’s The Last Tsar. She lives in Austin, TX.