White Guard

by Mikhail Bulgakov

Overview

The setting is Kiev in 1918, a time of revolution, turmoil and civil war. The Germans have occupied the city, Petlyura's Socialists are camped outside awaiting their moment, while the Bolsheviks watch, contemplating their buried armaments. The once wealthy Turbin family are in anguish as their world grows smaller and smaller. Called a modern classic by C. P. Snow, this novel first appared in 1923, and was banned by Stalin in the '30s.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300148190
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	10/01/2008
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	179,218
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

MIKHAIL BULGAKOV was born in Kiev on May 15th 1891. He graduated as a doctor but gave up the practice of medicine in 1920 to devote himself to literature. He went on to write some of the greatest novels in twentieth century Russian literature, including The White Guard, Heart of a Dog, and his masterpiece, The Master and Margarita. He died in Moscow of kidney disease in 1940.

Editorial Reviews

"...infused with a pssion for the old city and for its people that catches the reader up in its sweeping intensity....His characters have a classic universality that has kept them alive for half a century."

New York Times Book Review

"...(he) unfurls great fictional canvases conjuring up the atmosphere and beauty of his beloved Kiev (like) Pushkin...but beneath the effulgent lyricism there sounds a chunk of cynicism..Bulgakov's irony is both broad and finely honed."

Newsweek