Manuscripts Don't Burn: Mikhail Bulgakov: A life in letters

by J. A E Curtis

Overview

In his lifetime, Mikhail Bulgakov was scarcely published. A quarter of a century after his death, his masterpiece, The Master and Margarita, became a worldwide bestseller.

In Manuscripts Don't Burn the title a line from his famous novel, J.A. E. Curtis presents a gripping chronicle of Bulgakov's life, using as source material, among other documents, a partial copy of one of his diaries which was presumed lost and uncovered decades later in the KGB’s archives. That diary and those of his third wife record the nightmarish precariousness of life during the Stalinist purges. Also included are letters to Stalin, in which Bulgakov pleads to be allowed to emigrate; letters to his siblings; intimate notes to his second and third wives; and letters to and from other writers such as Gorky and Zamyatin.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781468301397
Publisher:	The Overlook Press
Publication date:	08/28/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	549 KB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

J.A.E. Curtis is a lecturer in Russian Literature at Oxford, with a focus on the works of Mikhail Bulgakov and Evgeny Zamyatin as well as Russian drama. She is the author of Bulgakov’s Last Decade: The Writer as Hero.

Editorial Reviews

"Superb… marvelously uncensored." — –The New York Times Book Review

"Bulgakov’s magic never fails the reader… some of the documents included are indeed astonishing… Bulgakov’s life is as fantastic and tortured as the plot of The Master and Margarita." — –The Washington Post Book World

From the Publisher

Superb… marvelously uncensored.

The New York Times Book Review

Bulgakov’s magic never fails the reader… some of the documents included are indeed astonishing… Bulgakov’s life is as fantastic and tortured as the plot of The Master and Margarita.

The Washington Post Book World