Overview

To Kill a Serpent in the Shell dramatizes the final year of Tsarevna Sofia's regency, interrogating Russia's history while subtly confronting the Russia of today. The play, both a riddle and a fantasy, depicts the political rivalry between the regent and her lover, Vasili Golitsyn, on the one hand, and the young Tsar Peter on the other. The regency's incipient humanism, espoused in Golitsyn's consideration for the well-being of the Russian people, conflicts with the autocratic leanings of the young Tsar Peter. Boris Akunin shows us a pivotal time in Russian history, immediately preceding the reign of Peter the Great, and invites us to imagine what future rulers of Russia might have been like if the events of 1689 had had a different outcome.

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9781628973204

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Boris Akunin (pen-name of Grigory Chkhartishvili, b. 1956) is best known as a writer of genre (mainly detective) fiction, he is also the author of literary fiction, books on history, plays and essays. His recent popular history project, “History of the Russian State”, combines volumes of non-fiction and fiction. Akunin’s books have sold more than 30 million copies in Russia alone and have been translated into almost 50 languages. A number of his works have been adapted in Russia for cinema and television. Ileana Alexandra Orlich is President’s Professor of Comparative Literature and Romanian Studies at Arizona State University. Her publications examine the societies and cultures of Central and Eastern Europe. She is also a translator of fiction and drama. Her translations of plays have been staged in New York and Bucharest.

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