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The Captain's Daughter

The Captain's Daughter

by Alexander Pushkin, introduction by Robert Chandler, translated from the Russian by Robert Chandler and Elizabeth Chandler

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Alexander Pushkin’s short novel is set during the reign of Catherine the Great, when the Cossacks rose up in rebellion against the Russian empress. Presented as the memoir of Pyotr Grinyov, a nobleman, The Captain’s Daughter tells how, as a feckless youth and fledgling officer, Grinyov was sent from St. Petersburg to serve in faraway southern Russia. Traveling to take up this new post, Grinyov loses his shirt gambling and then loses his way in a terrible snowstorm, only to be guided to safety by a mysterious peasant. With impulsive gratitude Grinyov hands over his fur coat to his savior, never mind the cold.

Soon after he arrives at Fort Belogorsk, Grinyov falls in love with Masha, the beautiful young daughter of his captain. Then Pugachev, leader of the Cossack rebellion, surrounds the fort. Resistance, he has made it clear, will be met with death.

At once a fairy tale and a thrilling historical novel, this singularly Russian work of the imagination is also a timeless, universal, and very winning story of how love and duty can summon pluck and luck to confront calamity. by Alexander Pushkin, introduction by Robert Chandler, translated from the Russian by Robert Chandler and Elizabeth Chandler

Additional Book Information

Series: NYRB Classics
ISBN: 9781590177242
Pages: 192
Publication Date:

Praise

Honorable Mention for the MLA Lois Roth Translation Prize

Alexander Pushkin’s classic tale The Captain’s Daughter, set in the reign of Catherine the Great, appears here in a witty and engaging version that brings the Russian author to life for anglophone readers in a new way. The challenges of translating Pushkin are well known, and they have seldom met with such sure hands as those of Robert Chandler and Elizabeth Chandler. The smooth and highly readable prose retains a Russian feel throughout, without ever seeming awkward.
—from the citation for the MLA Lois Roth Translation Prize, Honorable Mention

To criticize [The Captain's Daughter] is to criticize a Mozart symphony.
—Bob Blaisdell, Los Angeles Review of Books

Robert and Elizabeth Chandler's translation reads wonderfully...and captures the plot's wildness, cruelty, and touching romance.
—Jonathan Mirsky, The Spectator

Oh, how thoroughly is that classical book—magical. How thoroughly—hypnotic... Pushkin has brought Pugachev on us...the way you bring on sleep, a fever, a spell..."
—Marina Tsvetaeva, Pushkin and Pugachev

In any language, The Captain's Daughter would be a miniature masterpiece.
—T. J. Binyon, The Daily Telegraph

One brilliant feature of The Captain's Daughter is that you don't know what sort of narrative is unfolding.... It is a baffled reflection, from the position of political enlightenment, on the extraordinary hold exercised by violence and fanaticism upon the human race.
—A. N. Wilson, The Daily Telegraph

The Captain's Daughter is one of the stories in which Pushkin created Russian prose.... It is true poet's prose, absolutely clear, objective, unpretentious and penetrating.
—Robert Conquest, The Spectator

Pushkin's greatest stories include the famous supernatural tale 'The Queen of Spades' and the thrilling historical novel about the Pugachev rebellion, The Captain's Daughter. Everyone should read these.
—Michael Dirda, The Washington Post

Time has done nothing to dull the excitement of the story, which, for all its romantic coincidences, is something more than a mere tale of adventure because its characters are something more than cardboard.
—The New York Times

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