Customer Reviews

Between Heaven and Hell: A Thousand Years of the Russian Artistic Experience

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I purchased this book, hoping that I would be provided an overall introduction to Russia's cultural history. With the PBS two series THE FACE OF RUSSIA and THE HERMITAGE, and this book, I can now further explore individual aspects of the geography of Russia's culture. I especially enjoyed the early parts of the book. It left me wishing to read more on Kiev, Novgorod, and early Moscovite history. I want to congratulate the author on his excellent work here. Well-written with good footnotes, it makes the culture and history easily accessible for the beginner. The only thing that seemed to be missing was a good bibliography. But that is nitpicking of an otherwise outstanding work. This should be a guide for any who wish to write cultural histories of other nations. Again congratulations Mr. Lincoln. Your work is much-appreciated.

Once past the Introduction, which is so laden with copious details of the lurid opulence of the coronation of Nicholas II and Alexandra that the effect is almost soporific, this is a marvelous history of Russia's immense cultural heritage. For a single-volume history of an epic thousand years, it's rich with nugget after nugget of genuine scholarship and understanding about a seemingly infinite panoply of artistic riches. Lincoln not only covers all the arts- architecture, painting, music, literature (his revelations of Gogol are alone worth the price of the volume!), he exquisitely realises an integration of his subject into a fine general history of Russia. Catherine the Great is given rather short shrift, not much meat there, but the chapters on the Romantic period and the rise of Realism are fascinating and meticulous crafted. This is history writing Richard Pipes can only dream of- readable, deep, authentic, and beautifully attuned to genuine literary merit. I recommend this book to anyone interested in a comprehensive history of Russian arts. It's intelligent, beautifully paced, and not burdened by unnecessary digression. Russiaholics, of course, will eat it up!

Bruce Lincoln has chosen a very apt title to describe Russian history and culture. On one hand Russia has been plagued with an often violent history and tyrannical rulers. On the other Russians have adapted to the cultures of their invaders and the cultures they absorbed through their own invasions. This process has enabled Russians to develop an amazing cultural and intellectual heritage that should be envied by the entire world. I bought this book to help me understand Russian music - which I find to be among the most beautiful ever written - and film for a research project on Eisenstein. I found the approach very useful in understanding a this great film director given the political nature / and purpose of his films. However, the book will enlighten your understanding of the 19th century literary greats Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, and particularly Gogol.
It is suitable for the expert of Russian studies as well as the novice - so long as you can appreciate great art as well as the failures and the achievements of man. Ochin Khorosho

It skimps quite a bit on Russia's musical history but otherwise rates excellent and exhaustive in its examination of Russian culture. A little dry at times, and often focuses more on breadth than depth, giving some insight into Russian history, a lot of insight into Russia's visual arts and art patrons, and a good analysis of the books thesis, one why Russia's has been suspended between, "Heaven and Hell," although it does not exhaustively examine the theme of the title.

Hmmm. The first 700 years of the 1000 that Lincoln references in his subtitle are covered in only the first 55 pages of the book. I know that everyone's more interested in post-Petrine Russia, but let's be honest and call those first 55 pages an Introduction and rewrite the subtitle.
That said, Lincoln really has a grasp on Russian culture. I can't really complain about his understanding. However, he seems torn between understanding, for example, what Russian iconographers were doing and some kind of progressive, western ideas that he uses to judge the iconographers. If I could talk to Lincoln about it, I would advise him to go back and pull his editorial comments and leave the book as an explanation and not a western critique.

This survey of "a thousand years of artistic life in Russia", from the beginning to the collapse of the Soviet Union, is a quite admirable work. So often such ambitious undertakings descend, at least in parts, into a kind of dry catalogue, because after all there are few people who can be masters of such a huge field. But Lincoln's book never gives that impression. Every page is fresh; there are substantial and illuminating paragraphs or pages about every major writer, poet, painter, sculptor, architect, and composer, all firmly set against the historical background, and all written beautifully. Worthy to stand alongside Orlando Figes' Natasha's Dance (see my review).