Freedom From Violence and Lies : Essays on Russian Poetry and Music by Simon Karlinsky

Simon Karlinsky (1924-2009) was a prolific, provocative, and controversial scholar of modern Russian literature, of sexual politics, and of music. He held advanced degrees from Harvard University (MA, 1961); and the University of California, Berkeley (PhD, 1964), where he taught in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures from 1964 to 1991. Among his path-breaking publications were two studies of the life and works of Marina Tsvetaeva (in 1966 and 1985), The Sexual Labyrinth of Nikolai Gogol (1976), Russian Drama from Its Beginnings to the Age of Pushkin (1985), and editions of the letters of Anton Chekhov (1973), as well as the letters of Russian emigre writers and the correspondence between Vladimir Nabokov and Edmund Wilson (1979; 2001). He was a frequent contributor to the New York Times Book Review, the Times Literary Supplement, The Nation, and a wide range of professional journals.

Freedom from Violence and Lies is a collection of forty-one essays by Simon Karlinsky (1924–2009), a prolific and controversial scholar of modern Russian literature, sexual politics, and music who taught in the University of California, Berkeley’s Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures from 1964 to 1991. Among Karlinsky’s full-length works are major studies of Marina Tsvetaeva and Nikolai Gogol, Russian Drama from Its Beginnings to the Age of Pushkin; editions of Anton Chekhov’s letters; writings by Russian émigrés; and correspondence between Vladimir Nabokov and Edmund Wilson. Karlinsky also wrote frequently for professional journals and mainstream publications like the New York Times Book Review and the Nation. The present volume is the first collection of such shorter writings, spanning more than three decades. It includes twenty-seven essays on literary topics and fourteen on music, seven of which have been newly translated from the Russian originals.