Death of the Vazir-Mukhtar
by Juri Tynjanov
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"A novel by Yury Tynyanov, a leading figure of the Russian formalist school, describes the final year in the life of Alexander Griboedov, the author of the comedy Woe from Wit. As ambassador to Persia, Griboedov was savagely murdered in Tehran in 1829 in an attack on the Russian embassy. The novel is not only one of the central texts of Russian formalist literary production but also a brilliant meditation on the nature of historical and poetic consciousness and on literary creation. It is a show more complex and fascinating work on the nature of the relationship among individual memory, historical fact, and the literary imagination. The result is a hybrid text, containing elements of literary biography, the psychological existential novel, and the spy novel, and a deeply personal, almost confessional work about the relationship of the writer to his generation and the state. Written in 1927 and 1928, almost a century after the events it depicts, The Death of Vazir-Mukhtar bridges two watershed periods between revolution and reaction. At a time when the Soviet regime was becoming increasingly restrictive of freedom of expression and conscience, Tynyanov examined themes of disillusionment, betrayal, unrealized potential, and wasted talent. Unabashedly intellectual yet full of intrigue and suspense, The Death of Vazir-Mukhtar is one of the great historical novels of Russian modernism"-- show lessTags
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Il s'agit du plus extraordinaire roman historique qui se puisse lire. Le héros en est Alexandre Griboïedov, diplomate, certes, mais aussi poète, la seconde figure du romantisme russe à côté de Pouchkine. Moscou, Pétersbourg, les routes du Sud, Tiflis, Tabriz, Téhéran..., c'est l'histoire de cet homme, ses amours, ses aventures, ses moments d'indifférence, ses témérités, son audace : un fantastique défilé d'êtres humains, la haute société, les gens de lettres, les militaires, les fonctionnaires, les marchands, les espions politiques, tout le pays, et au-delà des frontières persanes les déserteurs, les eunuques, la cour du chah, les princes prêts à s'égorger les uns les autres... Je n'ai jamais rien lu d'aussi show more éblouissant que ce tourbillon d'hommes et de femmes qui dure un peu moins d'une année. show less
Серия: Классики и современники
История русской литературы XIX века
История русской литературы XIX века
Il s'agit du plus extraordinaire roman historique qui se puisse lire. Le héros en est Alexandre Griboïedov, diplomate, certes, mais aussi poète, la seconde figure du romantisme russe à côté de Pouchkine.
Moscou, Pétersbourg, les routes du Sud, Tiflis, Tabriz, Téhéran..., c'est l'histoire de cet homme, ses amours, ses aventures, ses moments d'indifférence, ses témérités, son audace : un fantastique défilé d'êtres humains, la haute société, les gens de lettres, les militaires, les fonctionnaires, les marchands, les espions politiques, tout le pays, et au-delà des frontières persanes les déserteurs, les eunuques, la cour du chah, les princes prêts à s'égorger les uns les autres... Je n'ai jamais rien lu d'aussi show more éblouissant que ce tourbillon d'hommes et de femmes qui dure un peu moins d'une année. show less
Moscou, Pétersbourg, les routes du Sud, Tiflis, Tabriz, Téhéran..., c'est l'histoire de cet homme, ses amours, ses aventures, ses moments d'indifférence, ses témérités, son audace : un fantastique défilé d'êtres humains, la haute société, les gens de lettres, les militaires, les fonctionnaires, les marchands, les espions politiques, tout le pays, et au-delà des frontières persanes les déserteurs, les eunuques, la cour du chah, les princes prêts à s'égorger les uns les autres... Je n'ai jamais rien lu d'aussi show more éblouissant que ce tourbillon d'hommes et de femmes qui dure un peu moins d'une année. show less
Nov 21, 2010French
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Yuri Tynianov's novel reaches English readers – after 90 years in Fans of Russian authors (August 2021)
Author Information
46+ Works 340 Members
Tynyanov, one of the founders of structuralist criticism, made lasting contributions to Pushkin studies, to the theory of verse semantics, and to other fields. His novels tend to embody his theoretical interests. His most important works deal with the oppressive period of Nicholas I's reign. Death and Diplomacy in Persia (The Death of show more Wazir-Mukhtar) (1927--28) is a biographical novel about the celebrated nineteenth-century satirist Aleksandr Griboyedov. Other novels include Kyukhlya (1925), about the Decembrist poet Kyukhel'-beker, and the unfinished Pushkin (1935--37). Among Tynyanov's shorter works, the novella Second Lieutenant Kije (1927), set in the time of the temperamental Emperor Paul I, has achieved the greatest renown and was made into a film in 1934. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Death of Vazir-Mukhtar; Death of the Vazir-Mukhtar
- Original title
- Смерть Вазир-Мухтара
- Alternate titles*
- The Death of Vazir-Mukhtar; Смерть Вазир-Мухтара; Смерть Вазир-Мухтара. Роман; La mort du Vazir-Moukhtar
- Original publication date
- 1927 (Russian) (Russian); 1929
- People/Characters
- Alexander Griboyedov; Nicholas I, Emperor of Russia
- Important places
- Saint Petersburg, Russia; Tiflis, Georgia, Russian Empire; Tehran, Persia
- Important events*
- Treaty of Turkmenchay; Russo-Persian War (1826–1828)
- Original language
- Russian
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
Classifications
- Genres
- Fiction and Literature, General Fiction, Historical Fiction
- DDC/MDS
- 891.73 — Literature & rhetoric Asian Literature East Indo-European and Celtic literatures Russian and East Slavic languages Russian fiction
- LCC
- PG3476 .T9 — Language and Literature Slavic languages and literatures. Baltic languages. Albanian language Slavic. Baltic. Albanian Russian literature Individual authors and works 1917-1960
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 63
- Popularity
- 491,050
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (4.32)
- Languages
- English, French, German, Russian
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 16
- ASINs
- 4
