Petersburg

Bely, Andrey, 1880-1934Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.6

Word count: 783K words
Chapters: 79

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Petersburg by Andrey BelyAuthor: Bely, Andrey, 1880-1934,Language: German, Class: PG: Language and Literatures: Slavic (including Russian), Languages and Literature, Release Date: Jun 5, 2012

Editor's review

Petersburg is the representative work of the Russian Symbolist writer Andrei Bely and occupies a distinctive place in twentieth-century Russian literature. Set in Petersburg, the city planned by Peter the Great, the novel revolves around an abortive assassination plot, yet its narrative center lies not in the plot itself but in the flow among consciousness, hallucination, and urban space. Bely makes extensive use of rhythmic syntax, recurring sound effects, and abrupt imagery, so that the text reads more like a linguistic symphony than a story in the traditional sense. This book is presented in German by Project Gutenberg and is suitable for readers studying Russian Symbolism, modernist narrative experiment, or the history of cross-linguistic reception. Readers may wish to treat it as a linguistic device to be dismantled slowly: first feel the sound and cadence of the paragraphs, then trace the skeleton of the characters' relationships. For readers accustomed to linear plot, the first few dozen pages may present a marked threshold, but once its rhythm is entered, the city's fog, streets, and delirium will form a lasting reading memory.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers studying Russian Symbolism or modernist literature
Readers of fiction interested in stream of consciousness and narrative experiment
Researchers who need German-language material to examine the translation and reception of Russian literature
Readers interested in the study of urban space and literary imagery

Not a good fit for

General readers expecting a traditional linear plot and a clear ending
Those who do not read German and have no parallel translation to assist them
Readers lacking patience for highly wrought rhetoric and discontinuous narrative

Reading tips

Read through one chapter first to feel the syntax and rhythm, then go back to sort out the character relationships
Read alongside a history of Russian literature or background material on Symbolism
Mark recurring urban images and sound descriptions and observe their structural role
If reading German is difficult, consult translations in other languages to grasp the main plot

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book an English translation or a German edition?

According to the bibliographic information from Project Gutenberg, the language of this book is listed as German. That is, what the reader receives is the text of Petersburg presented in German, not an English translation. If you need an English or other-language version, you should look for the corresponding translation separately.

Can I read this book without a background in Russian literature?

You can, but the barrier is relatively high. Bely's narrative relies on Symbolist techniques and the cultural background of Petersburg, and without relevant knowledge it is easy to get lost in the rhetoric and discontinuous scenes. It is advisable to first understand the basic outlines of early twentieth-century Russian modernism before entering the text.

Why does the novel read like a prose poem?

Bely deliberately weakens traditional plot progression and strengthens the sound, repetition, and rhythm of sentences, bringing the narrative close to musical structure. This approach is part of the Russian Symbolist novel experiment, whose aim is to make language itself an object of sensation rather than merely a tool for conveying information.

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About the author

Bely, Andrey, 1880-1934 Author · Russian · 1880–1934

Andrey Bely (Bely, Andrey, 1880–1934) was a Russian Symbolist writer and poet. Active in the Russian modernist literary currents of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, he worked in both fiction and poetry and was one of the important representatives of the Symbolist movement. His major work is the novel Petersburg, a landmark of Russian Symbolist fiction. Set in St. Petersburg and centering on the city and the fate of its characters, the novel is experimental in structure, with a distinctive verbal rhythm and dense imagery. It makes extensive use of symbolism, suggestion, and musical principles of verbal organization, and offers psychological description with a stream-of-consciousness quality. Bely's style emphasizes sound, rhythm, and verbal association, and has influenced later explorations of narrative form in Russian fiction. Public information on his life and education is limited, so these are not discussed here.