{"product_id":"the-captains-daughter-isbn-9781590177242","title":"The Captain's Daughter","description":"\u003cb\u003eA classic Russian historical military novel set during the Pugachev Rebellion which contrasts the human internal world with the inevitable movements of history\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e“Time has done nothing to dull the excitement of the story, which, for all its romantic coincidences, is something more than a mere tale of adventure” —\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAlexander Pushkin’s short novel is set during the reign of Catherine the Great, when the Cossacks rose up in rebellion against the Russian empress. Presented as the memoir of Pyotr Grinyov, a nobleman, \u003ci\u003eThe Captain’s Daughter\u003c\/i\u003e tells how, as a feckless youth and fledgling officer, Grinyov was sent from St. Petersburg to serve in faraway southern Russia. Traveling to take up this new post, Grinyov loses his shirt gambling and then loses his way in a terrible snowstorm, only to be guided to safety by a mysterious peasant. With impulsive gratitude Grinyov hands over his fur coat to his savior, never mind the cold. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSoon after he arrives at Fort Belogorsk, Grinyov falls in love with Masha, the beautiful young daughter of his captain. Then Pugachev, leader of the Cossack rebellion, surrounds the fort. Resistance, he has made it clear, will be met with death. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt once a fairy tale and a thrilling historical novel, this singularly Russian work of the imagination is also a timeless, universal, and very winning story of how love and duty can summon pluck and luck to confront calamity.\u003cb\u003eHonorable Mention for the MLA Lois Roth Translation Prize\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Alexander Pushkin’s classic tale \u003ci\u003eThe Captain’s Daughter\u003c\/i\u003e, set in the reign of Catherine the Great, appears here in a witty and engaging version that brings the Russian author to life for anglophone readers in a new way. The challenges of translating Pushkin are well known, and they have seldom met with such sure hands as those of Robert Chandler and Elizabeth Chandler. The smooth and highly readable prose retains a Russian feel throughout, without ever seeming awkward.\" —from the citation for the MLA Lois Roth Translation Prize, Honorable Mention\u003cbr\u003e\"Robert and Elizabeth Chandler’s translation reads wonderfully . . . and  captures the plot’s wildness, cruelty, and touching romance.” —Jonathan  Mirsky, \u003ci\u003eThe Spectator \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Oh, how thoroughly is that  classical book—magical. How thoroughly—hypnotic . . . Pushkin has  brought Pugachev on us . . . the way you bring on sleep, a fever, a  spell.” —Marina Tsvetaeva, “Pushkin and Pugachev” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“In any language, \u003ci\u003eThe Captain’s Daughter\u003c\/i\u003e would be a miniature masterpiece.” —T. J. Binyon, \u003ci\u003eThe Daily Telegraph \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e“Time   has done nothing to dull the excitement of the story, which, for  all   its romantic coincidences, is something more than a mere tale of    adventure because its characters are something more than cardboard.” —\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e “One brilliant feature of \u003ci\u003eThe Captain’s Daughter\u003c\/i\u003e is that you don’t know what sort of narrative is unfolding.... It is a   baffled reflection, from the position of political enlightenment, on  the  extraordinary hold exercised by violence and fanaticism upon the  human  race.” —A. N. Wilson, \u003ci\u003eThe Daily Telegraph\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “\u003ci\u003eThe Captain’s Daughter \u003c\/i\u003eis   one of the stories in which Pushkin created Russian prose.... It is   true poet’s prose, absolutely clear, objective, unpretentious and   penetrating.” —Robert Conquest, \u003ci\u003eThe Spectator\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Pushkin’s greatest stories include the famous supernatural tale ‘The   Queen of Spades’ and the thrilling historical novel about the Pugachev   rebellion, \u003ci\u003eThe Captain’s Daughter\u003c\/i\u003e. Everyone should read these.” —Michael Dirda, \u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eAlexander Pushkin\u003c\/b\u003e (1799–1837) was born in Moscow and brought up mainly by tutors and governesses. One of his great-grandfathers, Abram Gannibal, was an African slave who became a favorite and godson of Peter the Great. Like many aristocrats, Pushkin learned Russian mainly from household serfs. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs an adolescent, he attended the new elite lyceum at Tsarskoye Selo, outside St. Petersburg. In his early twenties he was exiled because of his political verse, first to the Caucasus, then to Odessa, then to his mother’s estate in the north. Several of his friends took part in the failed 1825 Decembrist revolt, but Pushkin did not—possibly because his friends wished to protect him, possibly because they did not trust him to keep the plot secret. In 1826 Pushkin was allowed to return to St. Petersburg. During his last years he suffered many humiliations, including serious debts and worries about the fidelity of his young wife, Natalya Goncharova. In 1837 he was fatally wounded in a duel with Georges-Charles d’Anthès, the Dutch ambassador’s adopted son, who was said to be having an affair with Natalya.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePushkin’s position in Russian literature can best be compared with that of Goethe in Germany. Not only is he Russia’s greatest poet; he is also the author of the first major works in a variety of genres. As well as his masterpieces—the verse novel \u003ci\u003eEugene Onegin\u003c\/i\u003e and the narrative poem \u003ci\u003eThe Bronze Horseman\u003c\/i\u003e—Pushkin wrote one of the first important Russian dramas, \u003ci\u003eBoris Godunov \u003c\/i\u003e(1825); one of the finest of all Russian short stories, “The Queen of Spades” (1833); and the first great Russian prose novel, \u003ci\u003eThe Captain’s Daughter\u003c\/i\u003e (1836). His prose style is clear and succinct; he wrote that “Precision and brevity are the most important qualities of prose. Prose demands thoughts and more thoughts—without thoughts, dazzling expressions serve no purpose.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eRobert Chandler\u003c\/b\u003e’s translations from Russian include Pushkin’s \u003ci\u003eDubrovsky\u003c\/i\u003e; Nikolay Leskov’s \u003ci\u003eLady Macbeth of Mtsensk\u003c\/i\u003e; Vasily Grossman’s \u003ci\u003eAn Armenian Sketchbook\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eEverything Flows\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eLife and Fate\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThe Road\u003c\/i\u003e; and Hamid Ismailov’s Central Asian novel, \u003ci\u003eThe Railway\u003c\/i\u003e.  His co-translations of Andrey Platonov have won prizes both in the U.K. and in the United States. He is the editor and main translator of \u003ci\u003eRussian Short Stories from Pushkin to Buida \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eRussian Magic Tales from Pushkin to Platonov\u003c\/i\u003e. Together with Boris Dralyuk and Irina Mashinski, he has also compiled an anthology, \u003ci\u003eThe Penguin Book of Russian Poetry\u003c\/i\u003e, to be published in early 2015. He has translated selections of Sappho and Apollinaire. He teaches part time at Queen Mary, University of London and is a mentor for the British Centre for Literary Translation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eElizabeth Chandler\u003c\/b\u003e is a co-translator, with Robert Chandler, of several titles by Andrey Platonov and Vasily Grossman.","brand":"NYRB Classics","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46303279317221,"sku":"NP9781590177242","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781590177242.jpg?v=1767738597","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/the-captains-daughter-isbn-9781590177242","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}