Russia Through Women's Eyes: Autobiographies from Tsarist Russia (Russian Literature and Thought Series) [Hardcover]

Professor Toby W. Clyman (Editor), Ms. Judith Vowles (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Russian Literature and Thought Series | Publication Date: November 27, 1996

Nineteenth-century Russia has been known to the West mainly through the writings of men. Russian women, however, were far from silent and have left testimony about their families, their education, their careers and their country. This collection presents the lives of 11 Russian women as told in their own words. These autobiographies span the century and cover a wide range of classes and professions. Among the writers are women of the gentry (Natalia Grot), the merchant class (Aleksandra Kobiakova), the lower bureaucracy (Praskovia Tatlina), and the serf class (Liubov Nikulina-Kositskaia). They include novelists (Elizaveta Lvova, Anastasia Verbitskaia), a journalist (Emilia Pimenova), an actress in the provincial theatre (Nikulina-Kositskaia), and two physicians (Varvara Kashevarova-Rudneva, Ekaterina Slanskaia) - one the first woman to earn a medical degree in Russia, the other a doctor in the slums of Saint Petersburg. Their memoirs show their engagement in the debate over woman's nature, her duties and responsibilities, her upbringing and her place in society. Each autobiography is introduced and annotated by Toby Clyman and Judith Vowles, who also provide a general introduction that situates these writings within the Russian and Western autobiographical traditions.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Through this selection of published but previously untranslated 19th-century autobiographies (full and excerpted), Clyman (Russian, SUNY), editor of A Chekhov Companion (Greenwood, 1985) and editor and translator Vowles (who also edited Sexuality and the Body in Russian Culture, Stanford Univ., 1993) provide readers with a glimpse of the lives of Russian women in different social classes. Autobiographies of Russian women translated into English are rare. Of the 11 women represented here, seven are of the gentry class (primarily writers and journalists) and four are from classes (e.g., merchant) less likely to document their lives. The editors provide an excellent introduction to the history of Russian autobiography and include a bibliography of other autobiographies. This excellent work is a nice companion to Five Sisters: Women Against the Tsar (Allen & Unwin, 1987. o.p.). Recommended for academic and large public libraries with strong women's or Russian studies collections.?Jenny Lynn Presnell, Miami Univ. Libs., Oxford, Ohio
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Russian

Product Details

• Hardcover: 408 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press; annotated edition edition (November 27, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300067534
• ISBN-13: 978-0300067538
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,295,538 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)