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New to St Petersburg, young, naive Vanya Smurov finds a mentor in the enigmatic and intellectual Larion Stroop, who initiates him into a fascinating sphere of art and beauty. As Vanya is drawn into Stroop' s world of aesthetic sensuality, he also becomes aware that Stroop is a frequenter of bathhouses: a homosexual. Disturbed by this revelation, Vanya abandons Stroop and moves to the Volga countryside in search of a more traditional existence. Yet he soon finds that the alternatives offered show more there are equally unsettling, leading him to question his initial reaction to Stroop' s hedonistic lifestyle. show less

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Member Reviews

2 reviews
J'ai moyennement aimé ce livre. Tout le côté description des sentiments, de l'attirance du jeune héros pour un homme plus mûr, anglais, charismatique est très très bien écrit et décrit car l'auteur envisage tout une gamme de sentiments, sans être péremptoire ou consensuel. On se sent proche de Vania.

Le roman est soft et plutôt évocateur et dans la suggestion que dans la description crue (Kouzmine avec ses Ailes n'est pas Oscar Wilde dans Teleny). Pourtant le roman est très osé surtout dans sa fin, dans le fait que l'auteur donne à Vania le pouvoir de se rendre compte par lui-même de ses sentiments sans tenir compte de son milieu ou de son environnement social.

Ce qui a gâché ma lecture, c'est la construction du roman show more en courtes scènes, très détachée les unes des autres, rendant difficiles une lecture continue car il faut sans cesse se réadapter (et cela j'ai du mal dans la vie comme dans les livres). C'est encore plus difficile ici car j'ai eu énormément de mal à mémoriser tous les noms (il y a beaucoup de personnages qui peuvent réapparaître après plusieurs dizaines de pages sans n'avoir rien fait de mémorable pendant leur première apparition).

C'est pour cela que je suis un peu déçue par cette lecture.
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Pre-1969 LGBTQ Literature
182 works; 69 members
Books Read in 2020
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Author Information

Picture of author.
56+ Works 266 Members

Series

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Common Knowledge

Canonical title
Wings
Original title
Крылья
Original publication date
1906
People/Characters
Vanya Smurov; Larion Dmitriyevich Stroop
Important places
Russia
First words
It was getting lighter and lighter in the carriage, which had emptied somewhat towards morning; through the misted windows could be seen the green of the grass, almost toxically bright despite it being the end of August, sodd... (show all)en roads, milkmaids' carts at a closed level-crossing barrier, watchmen's huts, and ladies from dachas out strolling under coloured umbrellas.
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)He got up after a sleepless night, worn out and with an aching head, and, after dressing and washing deliberately slowly, without opening the blinds, by the table, where there stood a glass of flowers, he wrote, unhurriedly, 'Leave'; after a little thought, with the same not yet fully awake face, he added, 'I'm coming with you' - and he opened the window into the street, which was bathed in bright sunlight.

Classifications

Genres
Fiction and Literature, LGBTQ+, General Fiction
DDC/MDS
891.733Literature & rhetoricLiteratures of other languagesEast Indo-European and Celtic literaturesRussian and East Slavic languagesRussian fiction1800–1917
LCC
PG3467 .K93 .K713Language and LiteratureSlavic languages and literatures. Baltic languages. Albanian languageSlavic. Baltic. AlbanianRussian literatureIndividual authors and works1870-1917
BISAC

Statistics

Members
115
Popularity
281,723
Reviews
2
Rating
½ (3.50)
Languages
7 — Dutch, English, French, German, Polish, Portuguese, Russian
Media
Paper, Ebook
ISBNs
8
ASINs
4