Nina Berberova
Nina Berberova | |
---|---|
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania , United States | |
Occupation | writer |
Nina Nikolayevna Berberova (Russian: Ни́на Никола́евна Бербе́рова; 26 July 1901 – 26 September 1993) was a Russian writer who chronicled the lives of anti-communist Russian refugees in Paris in her short stories and novels. She visited post-Soviet Russia. Her 1965 revision of the Constance Garnett translation of Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina with Leonard J. Kent is considered the best translation so far by the academic Zoja Pavlovskis-Petit.
Life
Born in 1901 to an
After living in Paris for 25 years, Berberova emigrated to the
Berberova's autobiography, which details her early life and her years in France, ending with her move to the United States and her first few years there, was written in Russian but published first in English as The Italics are Mine (Harcourt, Brace & World, 1969). The Russian edition, Kursiv Moi, was not published until 1983.
English translations
- Anna Karenina, with Leonard J. Kent Random House 1965, republished by Modern Library 2000.
- The Accompanist, William Collins Sons, 1987.
- The Italics are Mine, Vintage, 1993.
- Aleksandr Blok: A Life, George Braziller, 1996.
- Cape of Storms, New Directions 1999.
- The Ladies from St. Petersburg, New Directions, 2000.
- The Tattered Cloak and Other Stories, Knopf 1991, reprinted New Directions 2001.
- The Book of Happiness, New Directions, 2002.
- Moura: The Dangerous Life of the Baroness Budberg, NYRB Classics, 2005.
- Billancourt Tales, New Directions, 2009.
Bibliography
- (1920s) Бийанкурские Праздники, Biiankurskie Prazdniki ("Billancourt Holidays", stories published in the 1920s in the Parisian Russian language daily Последние новости, Poslednie novosti). English translation: Billancourt Tales, New York : New Directions, 2001.
- (1930) Последние и первый, Poslednie i pervyi ("Last and First")
- (1932) Повелителъница, Povelitel'nitsa ("Mistress")
- (1936) Чайковский: история одинокой жизни, Chaikovskii: istoriia odinokoi zhizni ("Tchaikovsky: The Story of a Lonely Life")
- (1938) Без заката, Bez zakata ("Without a Sunset")
- (1930s) Облегчение участи, Oblegchenie uchasti ("The Relief of Fate", stories published in the 1930s in Современные записки Sovremennye zapiski and collected in 1947)
- (1947) Alexandre Blok et son temps ("Alexander Blok and his time")
- (1969) The Italics are Mine (English version of Курсів Мої, Kursiv Moi)
- (1982) Железная Женщина, Zheleznaia Zhenshchina ("Iron Woman")
- (1986) Люди и ложи, Lyudi i lozhi
References
- ISBN 978-1134260706.
- ^ Dust jacket biographical details, from The Italics are Mine, Chatto & Windus, 1991
- ^ Россия и российская эмиграция в воспоминаниях и дневниках. А.Г. Тартаковский, Т Эммонс, О.В. Будницкий. Москва. РОССПЭН. 2003
Sources
- Barker, Murl G. 1994. In Memoriam: Nina Nikolaevna Berberova 1901–1993. The Slavic and East European Journal 38(3):553-556.
- Kasack, Wolfgang. 1988. Dictionary of Russian literature since 1917. New York: Columbia University Press.
- Buck, Joan Juliet 1993. "Postscript: Nina Berberova." The New Yorker, 25 October 1993.
External links
- Boris I. Nicolaevsky Collection at Stanford University, much of Berberova's early literary archive (1922–1950)
- Nina Berberova Papers, later literary archive (after 1950)
- Nina Berberova Collection Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
- Works by Nina Berberova at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks) (in Russian)