Overview

"""I'm not on good terms with the present day,"" Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky once mused, ""but posterity loves me."" Virtually unknown during his lifetime and unpublishable under Stalin, he now draws comparisons to Beckett, Borges, Gogol, and Swift. This book presents three tales that encapsulate Krzhizhanovsky's gift for creating philosophical, satirical, and lyrical phantasmagorias. ""Stravaging 'Strange'"" details the darkly comic adventures of an apprentice magus: lovesick, he imbibes a magic tincture to reduce himself to the size of a dust mote, the better to observe the young lady in question. He stumbles across a talkative king of hearts, a gallant flea, a coven of vindictive house imps, and his romantic rival along the way to a cinematic dénouement. ""Catastrophe"" wryly parodies Kant's philosophy: An old sage decides to extract the essence from all things and beings in a ruthless attempt to understand reality-and chaos ensues. ""Material for a Life of Gorgis Katafalaki,"" set in Berlin, Paris, London, and Moscow, recounts the absurd trials of an otherworldly outsider of uncertain nationality and unfixed profession with boundless curiosity but scant means. This book also includes excerpts from Krzhizhanovsky's notebooks-aphoristic glimpses of his worldview, moods, humor, and writing methods-and reminiscences of Krzhizhanovsky by his lifelong companion, Anna Bovshek, beginning with their first meeting in Kiev in 1920 and ending with his death in Moscow in 1950."

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It is now clear that Krzhizhanovsky is one of the greatest Russian writers of the last century. -- Robert Chandler, <i>The Financial Times</i> Krzhizhanovsky is often compared to Borges, Swift, Poe, Gogol, Kafka, and Beckett, yet his fiction relies on its own special mixture of heresy and logic...phantasmagoric. -- Natasha Randall, <i>Bookforum</i>

If H. G. Wells had been a poet, if Emily Dickinson were born a Slav, and if they had teamed up to write darkly hilarious, meandering novellas of fantastic realism, they might have equaled the bleak wit of Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky. Joanne Turnbull's deft, dazzlingly inventive translation and Caryl Emerson's lucid and moving introduction reveal the human side of this brilliant, tragically frustrated talent. -- Muireann Maguire, author of <i>Stalin's Ghosts: Gothic Themes in Early Soviet Literature</i> Krzhizhanovsky is unmatched for the droll humor with which he fictionalizes philosophers, from Kant to the imaginary Katafalaki. Logic for children, he wrote in his notebook; yes, children of the universe, old as we are, and still bewildered. I am so grateful for his gentle pathos in the face of great odds. -- Ange Mlinko, author of <i>Venice: Poems</i> Since his rediscovery in the waning days of the Soviet Union, Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky has completely overturned the canon of Russian literature. Joanne Turnbull and Nikolai Formozov's blistering translations of these three novellas, which provoke frequent guffaws of delight and horror, show us why. -- Benjamin Paloff, author of <i>Lost in the Shadow of the Word: Space, Time, and Freedom in Interwar Eastern Europe</i> It is now clear that Krzhizhanovsky is one of the greatest Russian writers of the last century. -- Robert Chandler, <i>The Financial Times</i> Krzhizhanovsky is often compared to Borges, Swift, Poe, Gogol, Kafka, and Beckett, yet his fiction relies on its own special mixture of heresy and logic...phantasmagoric. -- Natasha Randall, <i>Bookforum</i>

It is now clear that Krzhizhanovsky is one of the greatest Russian writers of the last century. -- Robert Chandler, <i>The Financial Times</i> Krzhizhanovsky is often compared to Borges, Swift, Poe, Gogol, Kafka, and Beckett, yet his fiction relies on its own special mixture of heresy and logic...phantasmagoric. -- Natasha Randall, <i>Bookforum</i> Krzhizhanovsky is unmatched for the droll humor with which he fictionalizes philosophers, from Kant to the imaginary Katafalaki. Logic for children, he wrote in his notebook; yes, children of the universe, old as we are, and still bewildered. I am so grateful for his gentle pathos in the face of great odds. -- Ange Mlinko, author of <i>Venice: Poems</i>

Author Information

Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky (1887–1950) was born in Kiev and moved to Moscow in 1922, where he became known in literary circles thanks to the readings he gave of his modernist texts. Krzhizhanovsky’s creative vision ran counter to the dictates of Soviet censorship. Not until four decades after his death could his works begin to be published. His works in English translation include Countries That Don’t Exist: Selected Nonfiction (Columbia, 2022). Joanne Turnbull’s translations of Krzhizhanovsky’s fiction include Memories of the Future, Autobiography of a Corpse, and The Return of Munchausen. Caryl Emerson is A. Watson Armour III University Professor Emeritus of Slavic Languages and Literatures at Princeton University and the author of many books, including The Cambridge Introduction to Russian Literature.

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