
Other Worlds
Peasants, Pilgrims, Spirits, Saints
Teffi(Author)
Robert Chandler(Editor)
NYRB Classics (Publisher)
Published on 20. April 2021
Book
Paperback/Softback
304 pages
978-1-68137-539-7 (ISBN)
Description
Stories about the occult, folk religions, superstition, and spiritual customs in Russia by one of the most essential 20th-century writers of short fiction and essays.
Though best known for her comic and satirical sketches of pre-Revolutionary Russia, Teffi was a writer of great range and human sympathy. At times she had to warn her readers that "those seeking laughter should not turn on me and tear me to pieces if, instead, they find tears - the pearls of my soul." The stories on other-worldly themes in this collection are some of Teffi's finest and most profound, displaying her acute psychological sensitivity beneath her characteristic wit and surface brilliance.
Spanning nearly forty years, from stories Teffi wrote in Moscow to those from her perspective as an emigré in Paris, Other Worlds gathers together those stories that share the theme of religious experience, both Russian Orthodox Christianity and Russian folk belief, with its often poetic understanding of spiritual matters. In an early story, "A Quiet Backwater," a laundress gives a long disquisition on the name days of the different birds, insects, and animals, as well as the Feast of the Holy Spirit, a day on which "no one dares to trouble the earth." The story "Wild Evening" is about the fear of the unknown; "The Kind that Walk," a penetrating study of anti-semitism, and of xenophobia more generally; and "Baba-Yaga," about the archetypal Russian witch and her longing for wildness and freedom. Teffi traces the persistent influence of the ancient Slavic gods in legends, superstitions, and customs, and the deep connection of the supernatural to everyday life in the Russian provinces. In "Volya," the final autobiographical story, the power and pain of Baba Yaga is Teffi's own.
Though best known for her comic and satirical sketches of pre-Revolutionary Russia, Teffi was a writer of great range and human sympathy. At times she had to warn her readers that "those seeking laughter should not turn on me and tear me to pieces if, instead, they find tears - the pearls of my soul." The stories on other-worldly themes in this collection are some of Teffi's finest and most profound, displaying her acute psychological sensitivity beneath her characteristic wit and surface brilliance.
Spanning nearly forty years, from stories Teffi wrote in Moscow to those from her perspective as an emigré in Paris, Other Worlds gathers together those stories that share the theme of religious experience, both Russian Orthodox Christianity and Russian folk belief, with its often poetic understanding of spiritual matters. In an early story, "A Quiet Backwater," a laundress gives a long disquisition on the name days of the different birds, insects, and animals, as well as the Feast of the Holy Spirit, a day on which "no one dares to trouble the earth." The story "Wild Evening" is about the fear of the unknown; "The Kind that Walk," a penetrating study of anti-semitism, and of xenophobia more generally; and "Baba-Yaga," about the archetypal Russian witch and her longing for wildness and freedom. Teffi traces the persistent influence of the ancient Slavic gods in legends, superstitions, and customs, and the deep connection of the supernatural to everyday life in the Russian provinces. In "Volya," the final autobiographical story, the power and pain of Baba Yaga is Teffi's own.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Publishing group
New York Review Books
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 200 mm
Width: 127 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
308 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-68137-539-7 (9781681375397)
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E-Book
04/2021
NYRB Classics
€17.49
Available for download
Persons
Teffi (1872–1952) was a popular writer in pre-Revolutionary Russia, a favorite of Tsar Nicholas II and Lenin alike. She was born to a prominent St. Petersburg family and emigrated from Bolshevik Russia in 1919. Eventually settling in Paris, she became an important figure in the émigré literary scene and lived there until her death. NYRB Classics publishes her memoir, Memories: From Moscow to the Black Sea, and the collection of stories Tolstoy, Rasputin, Others, and Me.
Robert Chandler and Elizabeth Chandler have translated many NYRB Classics.
Robert Chandler and Elizabeth Chandler have translated many NYRB Classics.
Author
Editor
Introduction
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