The Story of a LifeOne of the most famous works of Russian literature, a memoir about a writer's coming of age during World War I, the Russian Civil War, and the rise of the Soviet era. This is the first unabridged translation of the first three books of Konstantin Paustovsky's magnum opus. In 1943, the Soviet author Konstantin Paustovsky started out on what would prove a masterwork, The Story of a Life, a grand, novelistic memoir of a life spent on the ravaged frontier of Russian history. Eventually expanding to fill six volumes, this extraordinary work of a lifetime would establish Paustovsky as one of Russia’s great writers and lead to a nomination for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Here the first three books of Paustovsky’s epic autobiography—long unavailable in English—appear in a splendid new translation by Douglas Smith. Taking the reader from Paustovsky’s Ukrainian youth, his family struggling on the verge of collapse, through the first stirrings of writerly ambition, to his experiences working as a paramedic on the front lines of World War I and then as a journalist covering Russia’s violent spiral into revolution, this vivid and suspenseful story of coming-of-age in a time of troubles is lifted by the energy and lyricism of Paustovsky’s prose and marked throughout by his deep love of the natural world. The Story of a Life is a dazzling achievement of modern literature. |
Contents
The Death of My Father | 3 |
My Grandfather Maxim Grigorievich | 11 |
Carp | 18 |
Pleurisy | 23 |
A Trip to Chenstokhov | 27 |
Pink Oleanders | 33 |
Elderwood Balls | 42 |
Svyatoslavskaya Street | 51 |
The Midshipman | 66 |
What Paradise Looks Like | 71 |
The Forests of Bryansk | 77 |
The Swarm | 84 |
Water from the Limpopo | 92 |
The First Commandment | 102 |
Lime Blossoms | 110 |
Just a Little Boy | 120 |
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Common terms and phrases
Alushta Antoshchenko asked Aunt Marusya Baranovichi began Belaya Tserkov blue Bolsheviks Borya Bryansk carriage Cherpunov coat Cossack dacha dark Dima door droshky everything eyes face father fell fire front Galya garden gave girl grabbed Grandmother grey Gronsky Haidamaks hand head heard Hetman horses hung Katyusha Kiev knew Konstantin Paustovsky Kostik leave Left SRs Lėlya light lived looked Lyuba Mama morning Moscow mother never night Odessa once Paustovsky pince-nez Polesia pulled quiet Red Guards river Romanin Russian Sevryuk shouted silent Simbirsk smell smile smoke Sokolovsky soldiers Sotnik sound Soviet station stood stopped story street Suboch Taganrog talk theatre thing told took train tram trees turned Ukraine Ukrainian Uncle Kolya Uncle Yuzia versts village voice waiting walked walls wind window woman words write Yekaterinoslav yellow young