Customer Reviews

Prince Serebryani: An Historical Novel of the Times of Ivan the Terrible and of the Conquest of Sibe

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This is the only novel of A. K. Tolstoy, more known as poet, author of such famous verses as "Amid the noisy ball, by accident", and "Bellflowers", as well as many verses written in old Russian style, and of many humorous aphorisms, that became folk ones afterwards, such us "No one can embrace unembracable" and "Look into roots", which he wrote in association with his three cousins, brothers Zhemchuzhnikoff, under the pseudonym Kozma Prutkov. He was writing "Prince Serebryani" for ten years, and it separates earlier period of Tolstoy-poet from Tolstoy-author of dramatic trilogy. "Prince Serebryani" is an easy read, which gives full account of the different aspects of life in Russia. Often humorous, it also depicts some of the cruelty that was taking place at the time. Trully historical novel, reader is taken through all stratums of Russian society at that time. There are engaging dialogs, wich interchange with rich descriptions of architecture, costumes, and meals. There is also love story, but there is no happy end, though there isn't "traditional" tragedy as well. In general I would say, that it gives better understanding of the history and all its trends, than any history book, besides without much effort, because it engages one, as fiction does.

Count Alexis Tolstoi (Aleksei Konstantinovich Tolstoi) was born in St. Petersburg in 1817. The author described in Editorial Reviews is another person (also a Russian writer) - Aleksei Nikolaevich Tolstoi.
The author of "Prince Serebryani" (a Historical Novel of the Times of Ivan the Terrible and of the Conquest of Siberia) could not return to Russia in 1923 after the Bolshevik Revolution, because he (A.K. Tolstoi) died in 1875.