Product Description
Reference Guide to Russian Literature. Neil Cornwell, editor. London and Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 1998. First edition pre-Routledge printing. 974 pages. Hardcover, printed boards. Ex-libris sticker of L.Nelson Bell Library inside front cover. Overall near fine. Book weighs 7 pounds. 1 copy only.
Note: following description is taken from a later printing: thanks, Booklist!. Cornwell, professor of Russian and comparative literature at the University of Bristol, has assembled an impressive reference work for Russian literature. 13 introductory essays "give coverage to most periods, topics, and genres of Russian literature." Authors included have been limited to Russians and non-Russians writing in Russian, all of whom are creative literary figures rather than critics, philosophers, or theorists. Names have been transliterated according to Library of Congress rules and are arranged alphabetically. A few anonymous works of literature are included, interfiled with authors by their English-language title. In choosing which writers to include, the editor professes a bias toward the nineteenth and twentieth centuries "and, to some extent, towards contemporary authors."
Each of the more than 250 author entries begins with brief biographical information and a wonderful bibliography of primary works, including English translations, arranged by date of publication and grouped by genre when appropriate. Citations to critical studies are also listed. Introductory essays about the authors are provided and are followed, in many cases, by critical assessments of selected individual works; almost 300 titles are covered. Essays for both authors and works are approximately 1,000 words long. All essays are signed by the scholars who wrote them. Often, the essays on individual titles have been written by different scholars, thereby allowing for a broader scholarly assessment of the writer and his or her works.
Preceding the introductory essays are alphabetical lists of the writers and works included, a chronological list of writers, a general reading list, a chronology of significant events, and a glossary. The volume concludes with a title index, followed by notes on the contributors.
