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I Remember: Sketch for an Autobiography
Boris Pasternak's autobiographical sketch is the most outspoken and heart-searching document a great poet has ever written. It takes courage to dismiss, as Pasternak does, most of his literary output of the twenty-odd years that followed the publication in 1914 of his first volume of verse, A Twin in the Clouds, with the dry remark, 'I do not like my style up to 1940'; but
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Overwhelmingly know for Dr Z, most readers do not realize Pasternak was a leading Russian Symbolist poet in his youth. Or that for about 15 yrs he did not write anything at all, he just translated foreign works into Russian. Then Dr Z and this short "Sketch for an Autobiography" came out about 1957 and he won the Nobel Prize for Literature. This is an intellectual memoir, and thankfully translator David Magarshack includes voluminous notes at the back on who the many artists he mentions are and
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This is actually a very short book and normally wouldn't have taken me two months to finish, but I haven't been reading consistently for a while. I'm getting back into it now and have finished three books in the past three weeks and just started my fourth.
I was given this book because of the author's essays on the translation of Shakespeare into Russian, but ended up reading the entire book and enjoying it immensely. I definitely wish I knew more about Russian history and culture, though, becaus ...more
I was given this book because of the author's essays on the translation of Shakespeare into Russian, but ended up reading the entire book and enjoying it immensely. I definitely wish I knew more about Russian history and culture, though, becaus ...more
I was disappointed in this one. It started off well - he chronicles his early interests, memories and aspirations. His recollection of Tolstoy's death was very moving. Unfortunately that is the highpoint. From there he devolves into "I knew this famous poet/writer/composer and here is why they weren't all that great." He mentions his friends and his sorrow over what befell them, but he never actually follows it up with any specifics. There is very little about the realities of his life, how thes
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I found parts of this scant autobiography fascinating, and especially appreciated his summary of Tolstoy's life and impact-- a beautifully said homage. Sadly, he leaves a lot of the interesting stuff untold. He states that what happens to his dear friends is the sorrow of his life, and does not let us in on their tragic story- a pity. The second part of the book is his interpretation of Shakespeare's works, which he spent many years translating.
Phoned-in autobiographical rehash by an amazing author who owed us better. I'm going back to Safe Conduct.
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Boris Leonidovich Pasternak
was born in Moscow to talented artists: his father a painter and illustrator of Tolstoy's works, his mother a well-known concert pianist. Though his parents were both Jewish, they became Christianized, first as Russian Orthodox and later as Tolstoyan Christians. Pasternak's education began in a German Gymnasium in Moscow and was continued at the University of Moscow. Un
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