Irina Odoevtseva, Poet, Novelist, Memoirist

Résumé du livre

Publication of this, the first monograph on Irina Odoevtseva, is a long overdue event. Ella Bobrow, the poetess' long-standing friend and admirer, completed her book more than a decade ago. Only the vicissitudes of Soviet and Russian ?migr? literary politics forestalled the book's immediate and deserved appearance in the early 1980s. Odoevtseva's enforced exile in France, almost to the end of her life, prevented recognition in her native country as one of the prominent figures of St. Petersburg and Russian emigre literature. The standing that Irina Odoevtseva truly deserves has hitherto been apparent mainly to readers and scholars familiar with her poems, fiction and memoirs. For those still indoubt or ignorance, however, Ella Bobrow's book will serve as a broad introduction to one of Russia's major woman writers.- Christopher Barnes, University of Toronto