Overview

It is 1918 in Moscow. The communist revolution is in full swing. Food is scarce, living conditions harsh. Two women meet on the stage of an empty theater. One is the now famous twenty-six-year-old poet Maria Tsvetaeva, the other the twenty-four-year-old actress Sonia Holliday (Sonechka). The Story of Sonechka, written almost twenty years later, is a vivid account, at once comic and tragic, of their love for each other. A previously untranslated masterpiece (Dmitry Bikov calls it ""one of the five best books in world literature""), it stands as a testament to the artistry with which Tsvetaeva wrote prose; the vicissitudes of her life, love, and work; and the intense dynamics of Moscow culture in the wake of the Revolution. It also constitutes an exceedingly rare and early example of queer prose literature originally written in Russian.

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Reviews

""Marina Tsvetaeva, one of the most acclaimed Russian twentieth-century poets and autobiographers, is well-known for the passionate and lyrical intensity of her poetry, plays and prose. This first translation of  Tsvetaeva's The Story of Sonechka (1936)  is a welcome contribution to the ongoing project  of making Tsvetaeva's œuvre available to English speakers that has been undertaken by several contemporary translators. Fishbeyn's and  Reeve's admirable and  praiseworthy translation of Tsvetaeva's masterpiece, written in Russian and in French, captures the spirit and the uniqueness of Tsvetaeva's mode of writing. The Story of Sonechka sheds light on  the construction of Tsvetaeva's creative identity during the early years of the Soviet regime.  Tsvetaeva's engagement with the actors from Yevgeny Vakhtangov's Third Studio of the Moscow  Art Theatre inspired her early plays featuring Casanova, and developed her profound understanding of poetic theatre and commedia dell'arte that Vakhtangov used for his imaginative realism mode of artistic expression. The story is a homage to the avant-garde principles of theatricality and self-reinvention as strongly advocated by Nikolai Evreinov, whose notion of the theatricality of everyday life unlocks many semantic layers in The Story of Sonechka” — Alexandra Smith, University of Edinburgh “The Story of Sonechka is a rare, warming bonfire drawn from Marina’s Tsvetaeva’s carefully salvaged private reserve of contemporary notebooks, wonderfully rekindled by her hand in 1937--in the poverty of her French exile. Here we find the smoke and the sparkle of a few exceptional months in Revolutionary Moscow. Told with intimacy and searing tenderness, this is Tsvetaeva’s tribute to the life-changing power of youthful friendships. It is Tsvetaeva at her fiery, elegiac best—and, finally, in an admirable English translation that offers even the pleasure of reading it aloud--with all Tsvetaeva’s eccentric punctuation preserved. It has the power to direct your own reading voice to echo hers--in its emotional catches and firm assertions alike.”  — Mary Jane White, MFA Iowa, NEA Fellow in both poetry and translation. “With The Story of Sonechka C.D.C. Reeve and I.B. Fishbeyn offer an unabridged translation into English of Russian poet Marina Tsvetaeva’s 1937 memoir about her brief relationship in 1918–1919 with actress Sofia Holliday. This volume includes Tsvetaeva’s 'story,' abundantly footnoted, Reeve’s introductory musings on Tsvetaeva’s writing as influenced by her love affairs, and a translation of the writer’s 1940 'Autobiography.' In their rendering of the 'story' itself, the translators valiantly took on Tsvetaeva’s highly nuanced, often idiosyncratic prose, selections of her enigmatic poetry, and multiple quotations from other writers’ works woven into the text. A labor of love, C.D.C. Reeve’s and I.B. Fishbeyn’s volume will serve specialists as well as readers new to the legacy of the renowned and tragic Russian poet.” — Diane Nemec Ignashev, Carleton College

Author Information

Marina Tsvetaeva (18921941) was a prominent Russian poet known for her passionate, innovative style and exploration of themes like love, exile, and human resilience. She lived through the upheavals of the Russian Revolution and World Wars, enduring personal tragedies, including poverty, political persecution, and the loss of a child. Despite her untimely death, Tsvetaeva's work remains a cornerstone of Russian literature, celebrated for its emotional depth and lyrical brilliance. Inessa Fishbeyn is an independent writer and translator of Russian literature, born and educated in Kazan, Russia. David Reeve is DKE Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he specializes in ancient Greek philosophy and has translated many of the works of Plato and Aristotle and written books, commentaries, and essays on them.

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