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Summary
Editor's review
As an editor, I believe the value of reading Sanin goes far beyond the 'obscenity' controversy it once provoked. It is a profound report on social pathology, precisely dissecting the nihilistic mood of the 'end of the century.' Sanin is not a simple villain but exists as an extreme thought experiment: when God is dead and lofty ideals are shattered, how should one live? With a cold, even cruel brush, the author pushes this question to its limit. The lengthy philosophical debates and the subtle depiction of psychological states make the book more than a plot-driven novel; it is a novel of ideas. This translation, published by Shanghai Translation Publishing House, is accurate and fluent, conveying well the original's distinctive tone—a blend of lyricism and indifference—and includes a scholarly introduction that helps readers understand its complex historical and cultural context. Reading Sanin is like gazing into a distorted yet honest mirror: it reflects not only the spiritual predicament of Russia a century ago but often gives modern readers a familiar shudder.
Who it's for
A good fit for
- Readers with a strong interest in Silver Age Russian literature and intellectual history
- Readers of fiction who enjoy exploring philosophical questions such as existentialism and nihilism
- Readers who wish to move beyond simple moral judgment and understand complex 'anti-hero' figures in literature
- Scholars or enthusiasts studying the spiritual climate and cultural conflicts of periods of social transformation
Not a good fit for
- Readers seeking light entertainment or stories with traditional moral edification
- Readers sensitive to explicit physiological and psychological descriptions in literature
Reading tips
- Can be read alongside Dostoevsky's Demons and Nietzsche's philosophical works to understand its intellectual origins
- Readers need not rush to judge the protagonist Sanin as good or evil; first try to understand the logic behind his behavior and the soil of his era
- Note how the author sets other characters (such as the melancholy Solovyov and the conflicted Yuri) in multi-voiced dialogue with Sanin, forming the novel's polyphonic structure
About the publisher
Shanghai Translation Publishing House is a Chinese publisher oriented mainly toward translation and publishing. Its publications cover foreign literature, world classics and classic works, as well as social culture, folk literature and classical poetry. The database contains 2,618 titles, including Never Let Me Go, Les Misérables (2 volumes), Don Quixote (illustrated collector's edition), The Complete Comedies of Molière (4 volumes), The Complete Novels of Kafka (3 volumes), The Collected Works of Dostoevsky (9-volume set), Reason and Persons, and Oedipus Rex (Translation Classics). Its author resources include foreign writers such as Kazuo Ishiguro, Victor Hugo, Cervantes and Molière, as well as translators such as Zheng Kelu, Sun Jiameng, Li Jianwu and Zhang Kun. The publisher has brands such as "Translation Classics Selections" and "Translation Documentary," and emphasizes translated works in foreign literature and the humanities and social sciences, while also publishing bilingual dictionaries and foreign-language educational books. Public information is limited; the above is based on the book information in the database.
Contents
- 版权信息
- 阿尔志跋绥夫和他的《萨宁》 （代译序）
- 主要人物表
- 一
- 二
- 三
- 四
- 五
- 六
- 七
- 八
- 九
- 十
- 十一
- 十二
- 十三
- 十四
- 十五
- 十六
- 十七
- 十八
- 十九
- 二十
- 二十一
- 二十二
- 二十三
- 二十四
- 二十五
- 二十六
- 二十七
- 二十八
- 二十九
- 三十
- 三十一
- 三十二
- 三十三
- 三十四
- 三十五
- 三十六
- 三十七
- 三十八
- 三十九
- 四十
- 四十一
- 四十二
- 四十三
- 四十四
- 四十五
- 四十六
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About the author
Arkhipov-Artsybashev is a Russian writer, often rendered in Chinese as Mikhail Artsybashev, with the shortened form “Artsybashev” commonly used in Chinese-language contexts. Publicly available information about his nationality, dates of birth and death, and educational background is limited, so this entry makes no conjectures on those points. Two of his works are held in the collection, and his representative work is the novel Sanin (also translated as Shaning), whose Chinese translation is often listed among classic translations of Soviet Russian literature. His writing depicts characters' desires and spiritual malaise in a naturalistic vein, daring to touch on social taboos and individual inner conflict, which gives him a place in the categories of foreign literature and world classics. To Chinese readers he is known mainly through Sanin, and the related translations are of reference value for understanding individualism and moral controversy in early twentieth-century Russian literature.
Liu Wenfei, born in Lu'an, Anhui, in 1959, is a Chinese translator and scholar of Russian literature who has long devoted himself to translating and studying Russian literature. His translations and introductions cover major Russian authors such as Pushkin, Dostoevsky and Brodsky, and his authored and translated works number more than one hundred; he has received honors including the Russian Likhachev Prize and the Order of Friendship. Among the fifteen works held in the collection—On Grief and Reason, A History of Russian Literature, Selected Poems of Pushkin, The Interwoven Flame: Letters of Three Poets, The Captain's Daughter, the illustrated history of Russian literature and the Lermontov collection—the subjects range across foreign literature, literary appreciation, classics and world masterpieces, including translations of poetry and letters as well as literary history. His work is marked by careful translation and a broad outlook, offering Chinese readers systematic texts and references for understanding the Russian literary tradition.
